Potateo, Potato
by Chronically Lazy
Summary: Tatsuki has Senbonzakura - that is not a good thing. Sadly, neither is the fact that Byakuya is forced to 'protect' her until the whole mess is fixed. It's a case of pride vs. arrogance and they are not the only ones upset about it.
1. Lost and Found

**_Disclaimer_****_: I do not own bleach nor the characters. Sometimes I dream I do... and probably mess up the story by screwing with the cannon... and then I wake up and realise I'm not Robin Hood and I'm not Gunga din! I'm not Kubo Tite or Hiro Mashima; I don't own a manga and most certainly not Bleach._**

**_(p.s. we all know I adapted part of my disclaimer from 'Stop the pigeon!' )_**

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**Lost and found**

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The sun was low in the sky when Byakuya sensed the hollow. The sun was already dipping behind the horizon thus causing the sky to slowly turn a brilliant orange. He would have preferred to be sitting on a hill somewhere and watching it disappear behind the horizon, allowing the sky to be engulfed in a deep blue darkness and one by one the city lights below would switch on like tiny fireflies awaking after the sun has gone to sleep. He really loved beautiful settings, which was why he had chosen to stay in the living world a bit longer, but sadly he could not indulge himself this time; there was a hollow nearby and he had a responsibility.

The hollow turned out to be a dark skinned arrancar with bright red markings around its eyes. "Great, a shinigami – just what I needed to spoil my fun." The arrancar said irritably as he slipped off the silver bangle around his wrist, he looked up at Byakuya with a confident smirk, "any last words?"

Byakuya _really_ hated such people – loud, overconfident reckless idiots with death wish written all over them. "You're rather arrogant and unjustifiably so," He replied with cool detachment as he unsheathed his zanpakutou, it was evident that he had hit a nerve as the arrancar's dark brows knitted in fury. "It is evident that you overestimate you're self – "

"Shut the hell up!" the arrancar roared angrily, "I'll show you overestimation you bastard!" he held the silver bangles with both hands and yelled: "Tragar!" A net of bright red light, which flickered madly, filled the bangle, the arrancar developed dark grey feline ears with red markings, and a tail to match. "I'm going to knock you arrogant bastard down a notch or two."

"I wish you all the best." Byakuya said shortly. He sped towards the arrancar who seemed stunned by his speed, but before his blade struck the arrancar – when he was merely inches away from him – the arrancar disappeared. He reappeared to Byakuya's right.

"Fast, but not fast enough." the arrancar grinned, revealing long, sharp canines. "This, my friend, is what you call speed." He was now right next to Byakuya, the silver bangle around the hilt of his zanpakutou. The net of red light had spread along the length of his katana and was flickering tightly around it. The arrancar pulled the bangle downwards sharply and it hit the hilt of the zanpakutou with a reverberating clang that held an ominous finality to it.

It was as if something were pulling at his zanpakutou; an odd force, stronger than he was, was pulling at his katana. It pulled the katana right out of his grasp and as soon as the end of the hilt flew through the bracelet and was engulfed by the red net of light, his katana disappeared into thin air. Perfect; just what he needed right now, take his zanpakutou why don't you, and while you are at it, universe, why don't you just take his kido and spirit energy as well? Exactly what he had done to warrant the universe trying to so thoroughly annoy and inconvenience him on such a beautiful night he did not know, but one thing was for sure: he did not like it. At all.

"One, nil." The Arrancar smirk, "your move." He noticed the confusion on Byakuya's face and his smirk spread into a full, ear-to-ear grin. "Oh don't worry about your katana; it's just gone… somewhere." He pointed the silver bangle at him, Byakuya, "Do you want to follow it? I can arrange that – one problem though: you won't have your memory on the other side and to get it back you'll have to kill me. So what do you say?" He was taunting him. He, some random arrancar, was taunting him, Byakuya Kuchiki. He had last words all right: Die.

"If you, for a moment, thought that because I now lack my zanpakutou I am no longer capable of defeating you, you are sorely mistaken, definitely daft and have insulted my pride."

The arrancar narrowed his eyes in anger, "So you want me to just straight out kill you? Well fine." He lunged at Byakuya who dodged at the last minute. "Would you bloody standstill?" the arrancar growled as he spun round only to be hit squarely in the chest by a wave of bright yellow light which burned so much that he screamed in pain.

Byakuya put his hands together, "Art of destruction number 33, blue fire, crash down." A bright blue flame rushed towards the arrancar who was stumbling to get back onto his feet.

She had stayed much later than she intended to; she wanted to get home early and take a nap. She was more tired than she had ever been – at school teachers were piling work on the students like they had final soon and at karate, the coach had suddenly decided he wanted to turn her into a fighting machine. She really needed a nap and probably a nice, long bath. Suddenly something hit her on the shoulder and fell to the ground with a dull 'thud'. Tatsuki rubbed the shoulder it had hit as it had hurt, and looked down. A katana.

Now what was a katana doing falling from the sky? She looked at it, hesitated but in the end bent over and picked it up. She new nothing about katanas or weapons but she straightaway could tell this was a nice, most likely very expensive katana. Tatsuki looked around but there was no one around, she looked up and only the stars looked down. "Are you telling me it's raining katanas?" She said dryly, "that might be dangerous." She stood there for nearly three minutes contemplating what she should do with the katana and then decided it really was not her problem so she dropped it and walked away.

She was not ten steps away before she turned around sharply and marched towards the katana, which was lying on the ground where she had dropped it, like a poor abandoned puppy. Someone could be looking for it or what if some kids picked it up and decided to play with it? That would be dangerous; she could not just leave it lying there.

The arrancar watched with a mixture of fear and anger as Byakuya walked calmly towards it, "Do you see why you should not, for the briefest of seconds, believe yourself to be my equal, talk less of my superior? Do you understand that you are not at my level? You could live a million years and you still will not reach me."

The arrancar began to laugh. It was a loud, unstable laughter. He had been burned and beaten but he could still laugh with confidence, "You can't kill me and you'll never find your katana." It held the silver bracelet, which still had the red net of light flickering in its centre, and pulled it so it widened significantly. "See ya, shinigami." The arrancar said as he dropped the bracelet over his head so it rested around his neck, "time for my last trick, the disappearing act." As he spoke those words the same bright red net of light that had engulfed Byakuya's zanpakutou engulfed the arrancar and he too, like the zanpakutou, disappeared.

Byakuya narrowed his eyes in irritation; he did not actively hate anything or anyone but this arrancar was pushing him. He looked up at the clear nigh sky and sighed, time to find his zanpakutou.

He was not bothered about the loss of his zanpakutou because a shinigami cannot really _lose_ his zanpakutou; it is a part of their soul so they can sense it no matter where it is, even across dimensions. What a fool.


	2. Of Keepers and Madmen

**Of keepers and madmen.**

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Tatsuki was exhausted beyond imagination so she did not bother putting her things away properly or anything; she simply dropped her bag and the katana unceremoniously on her bedroom floor and headed to her desk. When someone was this tired he or she usually went to sleep; it was only sensible, but Tatsuki could not afford the luxury of sensibility. She sat behind her desk and yawned as she pulled a refill pad and her history textbook towards herself. She spun her pen dully as she stared at blank sheet of paper staring up at her. She had a twenty-mark history question to answer, two write-ups for physics as well as a literature analysis and it was all due tomorrow, she let out another yawn before lowering the pen to the paper.

Her eyelids were heavy, she felt as if her brain was jamming up – like an overworked machine – her brain was trying slow to stop but that could not happen. She needed to finish her homework before she could afford the luxury of sleep or insanity.

By the time she finally finished her work, the LED clock on her bedside table was glowing '1:25' in bright red. She did not have the time nor the mental capacity to calculate the pitiful number of hours of sleep she was going to get that night. In a half-asleep daze, she walked over the things she had dropped on the floor of her room and shoved them all into the back of her closet, including the katana, which stayed there for a week and a half.

It was not until the next weekend, when Tatsuki was packing her gi for her karate class, that spotted the katana in the back of her wardrobe. For a split second she did not recognize it but slowly she dusted away the cobwebs in her mind and it fell into place. "I forgot about this." She said as she pulled it from the back of her wardrobe, she held it up to eye level and examined it; it was a rather nice katana, slowly she stepped backwards until she reached her bed, which she sat on.

With concentration and patience, she had believed lost ever since her work began to pile on, Tatsuki unsheathed the katana and examined it carefully. It was so lovely. She ran her hand along the blunt end of the blade, it was so good-looking yet functional – who in this present day and age would own a katana like this? She touched the tip of the katana with the tip of her index finger and a sharp pain spread through her index finger as it cut a nice, clean line on her index finger.

Tatsuki picked up the sheath and sheathed the katana. Initially she had all intentions of putting up flyers in case anyone wanted it back but now, she realized that she actually liked the katana and wanted to keep it. She looked at her desk, coming to think of it, it _would_ look nice hanging up on her wall. Something inside her, perhaps that filthy, honourable thing people called a conscience, was telling her to put up the flyer; it was not hers and really, someone could be looking for it. Tatsuki looked at the katana once more – it was so nice…

Byakuya, however, was not torn between desire and guilt; he was not experiencing those emotions at all, what he was experiencing was one clear, uncomfortable feeling: the feeling of utterly freaking out. But he hid it, and quite well at that.

What was happening to him was highly unusual; he could sense his zanpakutou all right but he just could not find it, it was there and that was about as much as he knew. Even Mayuri did not understand. It was as if something was blocking it; he could not locate his zanpakutou, it would not respond to him and to make matters worse he could not reach senbonzakura in his mind. You could say he had been blocked out of his own spirit. This was absolutely perfect, as if life was not already frustrating enough without all these complications and annoyances and to make matters worse, everyone had been alerted to the current situation, which made him look like the careless captain who was stupid enough to lose his zanpakutou.

Of course, he was aware that it was not his fault and all the shinigami had been warned about the arrancar he had faced. His current predicament was that arrancar's fault, really, and if there was anything he wanted to do right now, it was to kill that arrancar and make sure his death was as drawn out and painful as possible. The numbers of shinigami at a time in the living world were increased, and some even ventures into Las Noches, to search for the zanpakutou.

Byakuya was freaking out, but quietly so, whereas Tatsuki, on the other hand, had decided that she was going to keep the katana; it was so nice and obviously someone somewhere wanted her to have it.

….

She walked round the park for what had to be the fifth time. After a nearly two weeks of backbreaking work, being free was oddly unsatisfying. She had had absolutely nothing to, well except training seeing as her instructor had decided that she had to win the next tale vudo competition even if she had broken every bone in her body. She blew a stray lock of hair out of her face and imagined breaking every bone in her instructor's body.

Tatsuki noticed a red-haired man sitting under a tree and looking thoroughly bored. If she remembered correctly, that was Ichigo's cousin or something; she walked towards him and stopped directly in front of him. The man looked up at her, "You're Ichigo's cousin – right?" she asked, he looked slightly confused, as if it were taking him a minute to register what she was saying, the confusion left his face and he smiled,

"Yeah, why?"

Tatsuki had seen him wandering around the park, as if looking for something, for almost an hour before giving up and retiring underneath the tree. "Are you looking for something-"

"Yeah, my boss lost something really important and now everyone is out looking for it. Kurakara is a _big_ place."

"Do you need any help? I'm not doing anything and I wouldn't mind helping." Tatsuki offered out of sheer boredom and the desire to feel as if she were using her time profitably.

"No, I'm alright." He said as he looked into the distance. A small smile crept unto his lips when he noticed the group on the soccer pitch. "Hey, what's your name?"

"Tatsuki Arisawa."

"Tatsuki Arisawa-"

"You can just call me Tatsuki." She interrupted.

"Sure, whatever. Hey, do you play soccer?"

"Yes, why?" The moment she said those words he sprang to his feet and started off towards the people on the pitch.

"Work is so boring; let's join them." Tatsuki was speechless. She had stumbled onto a certified madman; what kind of person just dragged someone they just met into an impromptu game of soccer? "You coming Tatsuki?" he yelled, she nodded and headed in his direction – the kind of person she just might like.


	3. Green as a Strawberry

**Green as a strawberry**

It was amazing how boring history could be. The history teacher last year was interesting and exciting but this year, the teacher just sat in front of the class and talked and talked and talked till everyone was either asleep or halfway there. Ichigo looked around the class in boredom; Rukia, Chad and keigo were asleep, Orihime was almost asleep, Mizuiro was doodling in the margin of his notebook, Ishida was the only one who seemed to be paying attention but Ichigo strongly doubted if even he would last the whole of the double lesson, Tatsuki was… doing something else…

He sat up straight and focused his attention on the dark haired girl. Tatsuki looked out the window, then back at her notebook; she scribbled something on it, folded the paper and, with a smile, tossed it out the window. Ichigo, who was sitting about three seats behind her, looked out the window on his right and surely enough there was someone standing outside. "Can I be excused?" Ichigo said as he leapt to his feet, he did not wait for an answer and was out of the class before the teacher could answer. The saddest thing was that was probably as exciting as the class was ever going to get.

He practically kicked open the front doors of the school and marched outside. He stormed towards the side of the building where Renji was standing and dragged him away. "What the hell do you think you're doing here?" He seethed, "shouldn't you be out looking for something? You know, doing your job?"

"Keh, since when was that your business Ichigo?" Renji said as he pried Ichigo's hands off him, "plus I'm taking a break; I can't work all day."

"What are you doing here?" Ichigo demanded again, "and what is you're business with Tatsuki?" For almost two weeks now, with Renji, it had been Tatsuki this and Tatsuki that. He spent almost every waking hour either around her or talking about her and it was pissing Ichigo off to high heavens.

"I'm just making plans with her; she's interesting - I think I like her." Ichigo's eyes narrowed at that statement and suddenly everything became much clearer to Renji. "She's cute" he smirked. "I don't know how or why you stopped hanging around her so much, especially sparring with her; she is sexy as hell even with that whole 'tomboyish' thing of hers." Renji grinned blissfully as he walked away. Ichigo watched the red-haired shinigami with all the hate and venom he could muster; running through his mind were all the wonderful, exciting ways in which he could slowly and painfully murder Renji.

His anger rolled off him in such obvious, furious waves that no one said a word to him when he returned to class. Renji was doing a great job of squeezing his name onto Ichigo's hit list. He was tapping his pen irritably on his desk when a crisp white, folded sheet of paper landed on his desk; he picked it up and unfolded it:

'_Hey strawberry, are you alright? Why do you look like you could commit murder any second from now?_

'_Tatsuki'_

"_Because I'm seriously contemplating it."_ Ichigo through darkly as he looked at his long time friend three seats ahead. He sighed before quickly scribbling down a response:

'_It's nothing.'_

As he folded the paper and passed it forward he could not help but be plagued by the fact that he was lying and she would know, but then again he had lied to her so many times in this past year that it did not matter anymore. He noticed that she did not bother to look back at him – of course she knew it was a lie; a year ago he would have passed her a full detailed account of who he was planning to murder, how he was planning to murder the person and why, but this year, it was 'nothing'.

When the bell rang for lunch, his choice of action was not to go to Tatsuki and speak to her; he went to Rukia so she could explain exactly why he should not go Bankai on Renji.

"He's just pushing your buttons for fun; don't take him seriously." Rukia said as she opened her juice box.

"No, you didn't hear him." Ichigo insisted. Rukia rolled her eyes,

"Renji has his – what I term – 'Ichimaru moments' and I'll say this is one of them. He can tell that you obviously care about her, he's bored and irritated by the mundane task of searching for senbonzakura and so he's pissing you off for fun – he wants you to share in his misery."

"Well this is not funny."

"Not for you, but for him it's hilarious – I grew up with him, remember?"

"Yeah, well-"

"Well do what you want." Rukia groaned in annoyance, "I don't even know what you asked for my opinion then. When you return more pissed off and frustrated that you are now, don't say I didn't warn you."

Ichigo had seriously thought about Rukia's words and he had actually arrived at the shocking conclusion that she was right; Renji was probably doing all this just to let off some steam so he was not going to bother himself by getting worked up by it. But when Ichigo bumped into Tatsuki on the way out, at the end of the school day, he could not help it.

"I see you've met Renji." He said in a careful slow tone.

"Yeah, your cousin's fun, he's probably a lunatic though." Tatsuki laughed,

"Tatsuki I just think you should be, um…" he was stuck; what was he going to say? 'careful'? No, that was not it. He knew he wanted to say something but had no idea what it was much less how to say if.

"Oi, Tatsuki!" Renji voice sliced through his thoughts and he turned murderous eyes in the red-head's direction, murderous eyes Renji completely ignored but not without some degree of inward satisfaction. He was standing there so satisfied with himself, it caused Ichigo's scowl to deepen. Now that he had traded his colorful abomination of an outfit for the white trousers of a gi and a black wife-beater, the girls around him were whispering excitedly amongst themselves – maybe it was his tattoos or his hair – but he did not even notice them. He had eyes only for Tatsuki and that was driving Ichigo even further up the proverbial wall.

"Sorry Ichigo, I have to go." Tatsuki said as she ran towards Renji, Ichigo reached out and grabbed her hand in an attempt to stop her but it slipped out of his grasp so quickly that he was not sure he had caught her in the first place. He did, however, catch that self-satisfied smirk Renji cast at him and was forced to restrain himself by slowly repeating to himself: 'Murder is wrong'… several times.

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**A/N: Readers do not worry - Byakuya is coming. soon. Writing Byakuya is difficult, he's so... annoying. **


	4. Shinigami Matters

**Shinigami Matters.**

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Tatsuki ran her hand through her hair as she entered the dojo, a dark haired boy, who was in the middle of a match, stopped and turned to smile at her, "Yukio watch out!" she said, but it was too late; his opponent used his moment of distraction to deliver a swift yet undoubtedly painful kick to his chest and he fell backwards. She was about to rush to his side was a strong arm held her back.

"That's what he gets for not paying attention," Renji said gruffly as he steered her away, "you've got your own training to think about."

"What? When did you become my trainer?" Tatsuki said with clear defiance.

"Tell you what, if you beat me you can go to Mr. distracted over there although from the looks of things he's fine." Renji waved at Yukio who nodded quickly before returning to his match, "See." Tatsuki rolled her eyes as she dropped her sports bag slightly unceremoniously.

"Shut-up." She muttered and she took her stance. Renji also took his stance and, with a very common yet annoying taunt, motioned for her to come. Tatsuki grinned as she immediately sprang towards him. She aimed a kick, which he deflected easily, at his right side. She aimed another kick and he blocked it – her grin by this time had faded. A punch – he blocked it. She tried to sweep his feet from under him but he dodged that easily by leaping backwards. Tatsuki blew a stray lock of hair away from her face in irritation,

"I though you were better than that." He taunted.

Tatsuki aimed another punch at him; this time instead of just dodging it he grabbed her elbow and spun her round, he wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her towards him so her back was pressed firmly against his chest. Tatsuki was seeing too much red to notice the sudden silence that had fallen over the dojo and the small crowd gathering to watch their 'match'

"Abarai are you trying to die?" She seethed, of course she could not move even if she wanted to as his other hand was holding her arm at an almost painful angle, but being immobilised never stopped Tatsuki Arisawa from delivering death threats. "because I swear you're as good as a dead man."

"Want to hear a secret?" Renji whispered,

"No." She snapped angrily as she elbowed him in the ribs. He immediately let go of her, not just because she had hit him rather painfully, but also because from just that one word he could sense just how royally pissed off she was.

He tried to apologise as she stormed away but she would hear none of it, he ran up to her and as soon as he placed his hand on her shoulder she jerked away as if it had burned her. "Tatsuki I'm sorry!" She stopped but did not turn around, he saw her clench and unclench her fists as if contemplating whether to walk away or to turn around and deck him.

"Renji," her tone was so calm it was evident that it was taking all of her will power to keep it in check, "right now, I have only two options: walk away and calm down or turn around and beat you till you bleed pink. It is taking of all my strength and will power for me to choose the first option; if you stop me again I can not promise that I will be able to show such restraint."

Tatsuki wandered the streets of Kurakara for nearly fifteen minutes before she realised that she should have taken the second option. _Maybe_ she was calmer now but that did not change the fact that she wanted Renji to suffer – really, who on earth did he think he was? _Nobody_ was allowed to touch Tatsuki Arisawa that way and he needed to learn that, preferably by her throwing him out a third floor window, just to drive home her point.

She was fantasising about throwing Renji out of a window when a large water droplet splashed on her cheek, it was quickly followed by another. It was drizzling which was strange because the air did not smell of salt air like it usually did before it rained and the day was perfectly clear - _'Ah well'_ she thought to herself as she broke into a run, hoping to get home before the rain really started. The rain got much heavier much quicker than she had expected and it seemed to worsen with every step she took, before she knew it, it was bucketing down.

"It's no use, running." A sibilant voice said from behind her. She immediately spun round and what she amused her almost as much as it frightened her. It could have been a salamander if it did not have six abnormally skinny horse legs holding up its silver body, nor did it have a white mask with upward pointing tusks that reminded her distinctly of a wild boar.

It was walking towards her gingerly; as if it were frightened it would scare her off if it moved any faster. This hollow was certainly one for theatrics and perhaps on a less annoying day she would have found it in her to be amused, but today the hollow's theatrics were simply adding fuel to the fire of her rage.

She sprang towards it and well three well placed kicks to the legs on the right side of the hollow, caused those legs to crumble at painfully awkward angles under its massive weight. She was in the middle of congratulating herself and thinking that the hollow was much weaker that it looked and would be easy to deal with when it struck her with its enormous tail and send her flying across the street. A series of sickening cracks filled the air and Tatsuki watched in repulsion and horror as the legs healed before her very eyes and the salamander-horse-insect-wild boar rose to all six legs. She pushed herself to her feet and stared at the hollow – what now? Plan A had failed and she had no plan B.

"Do you think I would have grown to this level if I could be defeated so easily?" the sibilant voice laughed. Tatsuki ignored it; she was too busy looking for a way to kill it to be bothered by its conceited declarations of strength.

'_What if I took the legs down once more and used that window – the time it took to recover – to find weaker spots?'_ she thought to herself as she assessed it carefully, the corners of her lips turned up to form what was almost a cruel smirk, _'that might work'_ Tatsuki was in the middle of building up the vim to execute her plan when a tall, dark haired man practically materialised between the hollow and her.

"Art of destruction number 4, pale lightning." He said in a calm, smooth voice as he stretched out his index finger and pointed at the hollow. A bright shot of lightning, that seemed to emerge from the man's index finger, hit the hollow between the eyes, as the mask cracked down the middle, the rain instantly began to let up and by the time the hollow had dissipated, it had stopped entirely.

On a normal day she may have been happy to be saved, she may have realised that perhaps this hollow was out of her league and this man had just _saved her life_ making his stepping in a perfectly welcome and good thing, but not today; today she was pissed. She had plans for that hollow – she planned to beat it to death while imagining it was Renji so she could calm down and let out all that pent up frustration but this man would not let her; he chose to meddle in _her_ business. "What the hell?" she practically exploded, "I had that under control."

He did not even bother to turn to look at her when he spoke; "You should not interfere in shinigami matters." He said in a calm icy tone. She had a retort on the tip of her tongue; she was ready to deliver that quick retort that would force him to turn around and at least look at her when she felt the pressure around the man intensify just around his feet. She did not understand why or how she knew he was going to move – she just had a sudden feeling that he was going to move, without thinking she reached out and grabbed his captain's haori – there was no way in hell he was going to escape without facing her first.

Byakuya did not understand exactly what had happened; he had been forced to stop his shunpo almost as soon as he had began simply because some girl had decided she was too important to encounter him and not worsen his day. He turned slowly and glared at her, Tatsuki's head was spinning from moving so fast but she could see the look he was giving her and she could tell he was the farthest thing from pleased, but that was not what caused her to hesitate – it was his tone.

"What do you think you are doing?" Byakuya demanded harshly. She had the feeling that if he had used _that_ tone on her in beginning, she would not even have dared process a retort but she still forced out her retort.

"Do you know how many times I would have been mauled to death if I had made a habit of staying out of what you term 'shinigami matters'?"

Slate grey as focused so intently on her that she could swear he was searching for something beyond her words, for a moment she felt as though her was searching, behind her eyes, for what motivated her to speak those words, and then crush it. "You would have been mauled to death once." Any hopes Tatsuki had of the tension lifting when he spoke, disappeared the moment his icy tone filled the air between them, "but I assure you, next time you have the opportunity to be mauled to death you will face no interference from me." with that the man practically disappeared before her very eyes.

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**A/N: I can't believe I finished this chapter this week! I feel so accomplished... \(^-^)/ yay...**


	5. A what? A Senbonzakura

**A What? A Senbonzakura**

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They walked back in utter silence, the tension so thick it threatened to suffocate him. She had returned to the dojo sopping wet and refused to explain why she was wet, all she did was take on match after match after match – she was evidently letting out her anger and the look she entered with conveyed to him clearly that he dared not go near her.

It was not until they were leaving that he gathered the courage to once again approach her. She did not yell, or hit him – in fact, she did not respond even when he offered to walk her home, so he took her not responding as a yes and followed her. Right now Tatsuki was taking deliberately quick steps, as if trying to escape him. "Tatsuki I'm sorry" Renji said for what could easily be the twelfth time.

"And I said forget about it." She replied sharply, she did not even bother to look at him; she kept her eyes fixed firmly ahead.

"But you-" before he could add the 'haven't' she interrupted him,

"Look Renji, why don't you just go your way? I can get home on my own so there's no need for you to walk me home. I forgive you, take it like that." She sounded much bitterer than she had intended to because it was getting harder and harder to suppress her emotions.

"I can't." He did not know it, but he was getting worked up himself, "One: it's late. Two, and most important: you are still pissed off."

"Fine, I'm pissed off!" she threw her arms in the air in frustration, she still was not looking at him, "I am freaking pissed off but you're not the reason I'm so fucking furious!" Tatsuki took a deep breath and managed to calm down a bit, "Shinigami are so arrogant and annoying. You're even the more tolerable kind, and that's saying a lot."

"Huh?" Renji's surprise was almost comical. "How do you… uh, what are you talking about?" he asked nervously.

"I'm not stupid Renji, I can see shinigami and those _things_ – I've even been attacked a couple of times, and I often hear Ichigo, Orihime and Ishida talking. I even know Rukia is a shinigami." Tatsuki shrugged. "I met this shinigami today and I promise you the next time I see him he's as good as a dead man. He actually managed to get me to transfer my anger from you to him, just because he was so… I don't even know how to describe him."

"Wow, you can really talk a lot." He said light-heartedly. Tatsuki turned slowly and glared at the sixth division lieutenant in a manner that eerily reminded him of his captain. "So you know why I'm here, right? In that case have you seen it anywhere?" Renji, desperate to change the topic, asked, "I've grown so tired of looking for senbonzakura that I've stopped trying."

"Seen what? What's senbonzakura?"

"You don't know? I thought you said you've been listening in on Rukia."

"Yeah, but it's mostly by accident; I'm not an eavesdropper." Tatsuki said as she elbowed him semi-playfully, semi-wishing to break his ribs.

"If you don't know then I really can't tell you."

"Oh please," Tatsuki waved him off, "tell me and wipe my memory so I'll forget it and then remember a day later."

"What?"

"It's one of the reasons I know a bit about shinigami – you guys keep wiping my memory but after a day or so it wears off. I've simply come to the conclusion that you guys are inept."

"You're unbelievable." Renji shook his head,

"So what's senbonzakura?"

At first he did not want to answer, but then he realised that she was lightening-up and was become calm, so he answered because he felt if he managed to carry on the conversation by the time they reached her home she would not be angry any more. "My captain lost his katana – well it kind of just disappeared and that is very serious."

Tatsuki shifted uncomfortably, so she _should_ have put up 'missing flyers'; it was being missed and no one wanted her to have the katana. Great. "Katana, huh – do you mean like traditional katana, rectangular-ish guard, white sheath…"

"You've seen it?" Renji grabbed her shoulder excitedly,

"Well, I kind of have it." Tatsuki grinned sheepishly.

"You what?" Renji was far too excited to remember anything that had bothered him in the last fifteen minutes,

"It just dropped out of the sky a couple of weeks ago and hit me on the shoulder." She said almost defensively to which Renji grinned broadly, in his excitement he picked her up and spun her round, she rested her hands on his shoulders to steady herself

"You're kidding!"

"Renji," Tatsuki said slowly, "put me down. Now."

The window slammed shut so loudly that it could only mean one thing: Ichigo had finally come back. Rukia slid open the closet door and stared at the orange haired shinigami as he paced up and down his room before finally giving up and flinging himself onto his bed, "Do not say a word Rukia." Funnily enough, she was just about to say 'I told you so.' With nothing to say she retreated to her 'bed', she was just about to slide the closet door when Ichigo's bedroom window flew open and an excited Renji leapt inside, Ichigo immediately placed his pillow over his head and scowled into it.

"Hey Rukia, guess what?" Renji said as he yanked the pillow of Ichigo's head, "I found senbonzakura."

"What? You? How?" Rukia leapt to her feet in disbelief, "You weren't even looking for it!"

"That's the best part!" Renji said as he sat on Ichigo's bed, "Not working actually works, Tatsuki found it. She really liked it though and I think she was sad to see it go," he cast a sideways glance at Ichigo who had turned over and was now scowling into his mattress, "maybe I should get her a replica as a way of saying thanks – she'd love that."

"Renji." Rukia said sharply, "it's not funny."

"It really doesn't bother me," Ichigo lied, "if he thinks he likes Tatsuki he can con-"

"Ah well, it was getting old anyway. This idiot would not know when to confess even if it hit him over the head." Renji said as he threw the pillow over Ichigo's head, cutting him off mid-sentence. He then made his way to the window, "anyway I'm off to Seretei tonight, just came to tell you the good news." He hit Ichigo with the hilt of his sword before he climbed out the window, "And don't worry Ichigo, she'll get over me... eventually." Ichigo leapt towards Renji, as if ready to tear him apart, but before he could catch him the red-haired shinigami had escaped, leaving his laughter trailing behind him.

"I told you to ignore him." Rukia said right before she slid shut the closet door.

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**A/N: The title of this chapter is based off this game created by my friend called 'A what' - it's a ridiculous game for bored people that is for some reason super fun. **


	6. Success! Or Something of that Inco

**Success! Or something of that inconvenient nature.**

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He had almost forgotten what relief felt like. The past three weeks had been torture for him; he had been constantly plagued by the thought: 'What if he never found senbonzakura, what then?' he could not describe what he felt when he was handed back his zanpakutou. He was secretly indebted to his lieutenant and although that did not sit particularly well with him, the joy of having back his zanpakutou currently out weighted all else.

Byakuya examined his sword silently, someone had taken good care of his katana; the sheath was clean and dust free – polished, if anything – the blade was shining as if it were new, someone had loved his katana in his absence and perhaps you could say he was grateful for that. He held the hilt with both hands and took a deep breath – honestly, it had been too long – "Scatter," he said, "senbonzakura." He did not understand why some people chose to constantly yell at the zanpakutou; even if you whispered it would hear you and respond, so what was the point? Maybe for some like Matsumoto it was necessary as her zanpakutou was undisciplined. He, however, never had that problem with his zanpakutou and ideally one should never have that problem.

Byakuya paused, his lips turned down about 26 degrees to form a perfect frown; for some strange reason he was still holding a complete, assembled katana. "Scatter, Senbonzakura!", there was still no response. "Senbonzakura!" He tapped the katana lightly but irritably, "Scatter!"

After nearly fifteen minutes of yelling 'scatter!', Byakuya sank to the ground and practically flung the katana away from himself in annoyance. He rubbed his temples and let out a frustrated breath, _"Great, back to Mayuri."_ He thought bitterly as he rose to his feet and dusted off his hakama, he picked up his zanpakutou crossly and stormed out. He really was not in the mood to have to deal with that psychotic twelfth division captain; the last thing he needed was that psychopath messing around with his zanpakutou again.

"Interesting." Mayuri said excitedly. Byakuya watched, slightly put off, as Mayuri leaned back in his chair and watched the numbers skitter across the screen, suddenly a large error message sprang up: 'Unidentified'. "Perfect!" Mayuri said excitedly. Byakuya frowned that 26 degree frown again; this man was certainly mad, what could be 'perfect' about an error message? Especially one that read 'unidentified' – in case he was mistaken, that was a bad thing.

Mayuri's lips turned up in a crooked smile as he gazed at the zanpakutou lying before him, "Extrodinary." He looked up at the irritated sixth division captain, "I have good news and bad news."

"What is it Mayuri?" Byakuya clipped, his hold on his temper was getting weaker and weaker with each second he was forced to endure Mayuri's presence.

"Well, Senbonzakura is fine – mostly. Your spirit energy is still there but there is this barrier, blocking it. I've analysed it and it appears that the spirit energy is such that it allows for another spirit signature to attach itself, making whoever's spirit signature attaches to it, the new owner." Mayuri was grinning from ear to ear, and from the way he was tapping his index finger against the table, he still had something to say. "Basically, senbonzakura no longer recognises you as owner."

"I understand that Mayuri, who is the new owner?" Byakuya said testily, "I am sure you would have been able to locate the person by now."

"Ideally yes," Mayuri had built up into an excited frenzy; he rushed over to the computer and typed in something quickly only to have the error message spring up again, "but there is no signature. The fact that lieutenant Abarai's spirit signature was not imprinted on senbonzakura means someone got to it first, but the energy is untraceable."

"What?"

"Exactly. It cannot be found and don't think it is masked – it registers as nothing. I can get through any masking on spirit energy and this is a spirit signature we are dealing with, which is significantly harder to mask. The only way we can find who now 'owns' senbonzakura is to ask lieutenant Abarai." Mayuri grinned like a shark, "I'll probably have to run tests on the person to find out how to undo it."

"I already know how." Byakuya snapped as he grabbed senbonzakura and walked out of the twelfth division lab. Mayuri glanced at the computer screen one last time before quickly following the sixth division captain out.

Yes, it technically was Renji's duty to answer the question as to where he found Senbonzakura but he did not want to – not with the way Mayuri was hovering around him like a hungry vulture, clasping and unclasping his hands behind his back. "I told you already, I did not find it."

"I understood that part Lieutenant Abarai. The question was who found it?" Byakuya clipped. Renji was hoping that by the time Byakuya had finished that sentence he would have come up with a halfway decent lie that would prevent him mentioning Tatsuki but he had not.

"Oh, right – a… um, friend found it." He was getting even more worried because, believe it or not, Mayuri seemed to be getting hungrier and hungrier for the information and that was never a good sign.

"Who?" Byakuya's tone was icy and impatient; Renji knew he was treading on thing ice.

"A friend of Ichigo's." he was going to make this as long and drawn out as possible, until his brain decided to work.

"Ah, interesting, I might have known," Mayuri said in an excited, pleased tone that made the hairs on the back of Renji's neck stand on end. He suddenly found himself wishing he was telepathic – he needed to tell Tatsuki to get as far away from Japan as possible. "this person had to have something to do with the representative shinigami. Go on, Lieutenant Abarai." That was about as much as Renji could stand,

"Fine, I will tell you who she is but please keep him," he pointed sharply at Mayuri, "away from her; I'm not letting him turn someone I care about into a science project!" Mayuri narrowed his eyes in irritation,

"Look here boy, I am your superior and you will not dare stand in the way of my rese-"

"Alright." Byakuya coolly, "I will ensure Captain Kurotsuchi does not harm this person." As it turned out, he did not have to remain indebted to his lieutenant for long because he considered this making them even.

"Even if he sends Nemu or some weird unholy hollow-hybrid thing? I don't know what is going on, but I know if anything happens to her, it would be my fault so give me your word that you will not let anything happen to her?" Renji said to Byakuya and cast an accusing glance at Mayuri whose fists were clenched so tight that his knuckles were beginning to turn white.

"Lieutenant Abarai, if you understood the gravity of the current situation you would not be wasting my time like this," Renji could hear literally hear the cracking ice in every word of Byakuya's, "there is something wrong with senbonzakura and thus it is imperative I _speak_ to this person."

Renji let out a defeated sigh; something was telling him he was making a terrible mistake but he shrugged it off by telling himself that he would just have to fix anything that dared to go wrong. He silently prayed for whatever all this was to be simple, before telling his captain everything. Mayuri lips spread into a shark-like grin as Renji began "Her name is Tatsuki Arisawa"


	7. Midnight Warnings and Spirit Amnesia

**Midnight Warnings and Spirit Amnesia**

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All she wanted to do that night was sleep a peaceful, normal sleep but apparently senbonzakura had other plans. That night when she finally slipped into a nice, some-what comfortable sleep she did not experience a dreamless sleep or even a nightmare, no, Tatsuki Arisawa found herself standing on a small hill under a large sakura tree and although the scene was absolutely beautiful and the cherry tree speckled landscape stretched as far as her eyes could see, there was one little problem; the person in the mask standing right in front of her. "Lady Arisawa." Tatsuki flinched at the use of the title 'Lady'.

"Huh?"

"Lady Arisawa, I fear you might be in danger. Someone tried to call upon me yesterday and on my failing to respond, is now out to find you. You must get me back so we can work together and-"

"Who are you and where am I?" Tatsuki cut in, "wait, don't answer that; I am obviously dreaming."

"Lady Arisawa, this is not a joke!" The man said seriously,

"Ok," Tatsuki threw up her arms in defeat - she was going to play along, "tell me, who are you?"

He hesitated, and when he spoke he spoke in a tone that implied that she should know was he was about to say and thus her question was unusual and trivial "I'm Senbonzakura-"

"Wasn't that that name of the katana – zanpak… eh.. thingy"

"Yes it was… is the name of your katana because I'm your zanpakutou!"

Tatsuki tilted her head to one side, perplexed "what?"

"Lady Arisawa, has something happened to your memory?" he asked with visible concern,

"No, but something's obviously happened to yours." Tatsuki said slowly as she folded her arms across her chest and leaned towards him, her head tilted upwards so she could look him in the face – he was head and shoulders above her, "I do not have a zanpakutou and I really do not know you. I mean, I did not even really know what a zanpakutou was until two days ago." If she could see behind his mask she would have seen the pity he was directing at her,

"I don't know who has done what to you but we will solve this, in the mean time, Lady Arisawa, you must be careful – go somewhere where you will be safe and try to get me back so we can undo whatever has been done, right now I fear there are people after you." Senbonzakura notice the small smile playing at the corner of her lips, "Lady Arisawa, this is not a joke."

She was about to pass another comment when she felt a sharp upwards tug and was unexpectedly pulled upwards by some unseen force. She was rushing upwards so fast it was dizzying, she could hear senbonzakura yelling her name and at first he sounded far away, but then his voice got closer and closer, she saw him rushing towards her – how he was able to do that she would chalk up to it all being a crazy dream. "Lady Arisawa, your life may be in danger! I have to explain to you." He was closer now, his hand was stretched out and now he was yelling for her to grab his hand, she complied. Their fingers were millimeters from each other, their finger tips were practically brushing. Tatsuki forced herself to stretch further and the zanpakutou spirit grabbed her hand but before she could let out a sigh of relief she felt another painful tug and her hand was wrenched from his as she flew upwards too quickly for even he to follow.

Byakuya woke with a start; he pushed himself into a sitting position and placed his head in his hands. He was getting tired of this and truly could not wait for this experience to be over; it was getting more and more frustrating by the day. Forcing that girl out of his soulscape had been much harder than he anticipated and it had taken much more out of him than he though, but it was sill worth it; there was no way he was going to tolerate someone intruding on _his _soul.

Something was nudging him at the back of his mind, something was not quite right about the dark haired girl he had seen in his soulscape – she looked familiar as if he had met her before but he could not place her. He irritably pushed the covers off himself and rose to his feet, he was racking him mind for the answer as to who she was despite yet another nagging feeling telling him he would not like the answer when he found it and that it was being repressed for his own sake.

Byakuya could not help but ask himself exactly what all-powerful being he had annoyed to deserve this? All this inconvenience and annoyance and insolent living people, it was as though someone out there _wanted_ to see him regress to his childhood temper; somewhat _wanted_ to see him blow his lid for the first time in decades.

He pushed open the window, silver moonlight streamed into the room hitting the sixth division captain, who had leaned forward to take in a lung full of the calming night air. He could feel himself relaxing, tomorrow it would be all over; tomorrow he was going to the living world to find this 'Tatsuki Arisawa', regain control of senbonzakura and close this horrid chapter of life. He would never have to face a hollow without his zanpakutou ever again.

The captain of the sixth division let out a sigh of relief and he shut his eyes, the moment he closed his eyes an image flashed behind them, an image so disturbing to him that his eyes flew open immediately. She was the one; Tatsuki Arisawa was the girl he had, sadly, saved from the hollow. It could not be. He took in a deep breath and shut his eyes; he refused to believe it. Byakuya pictured the girl who he had forced out of his soulscape – dark hair, large, soft brown eyes, small and delicate frame - he envisioned the other girl – dark hair, dark eyes short and possibly frail. He was holding the window sill so tightly that his knuckles were beginning to turn white; Tatsuki Arisawa and that girl were one and the same. Perfect, absolutely bloody perfect, because this experience was not horrible enough as it was.

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**A/N: This was a challenging chapter because right now I feel like rubbish, sorry its so short. **


	8. The Inconvenience Of Words

**The Inconvenience of Words**

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She was pretty sure she was being followed. No, she was not paranoid and no, the fact that she felt she was being followed had nothing to do with what senbonzakura had said. She did not take any of what the zanpakutou had said seriously and a rather large part of her was convinced she had been dreaming; really, who would come after her of all people and what possible reason could they have? It was not like she was Ichigo or something.

The feeling of being followed had begun as an awkward feeling in the pit of her stomach but that was all the way back at the street of her school – then it was just a suspicion, now she was sure someone was following her. She tightened her grip on her bag and quickened her steps, who was she kidding? She _was_ affected by what she had been told the day before – when you were told someone was out to get you, no matter how silly you thought it was, when you lived in a world like hers where strange monsters were a normalcy, you could not help but be affected despite how much you tried to convince yourself that you weren't. She was about to cross the street when she caught a flash of black in her peripherals, she paused and looked round carefully. Her discomfort was slowly morphing into anger; enough was enough was going to show whoever was following her just how harmless she could be – or at least try to.

She turned round sharply just in time to catch sigh of a black clad person disappearing behind a parked car. Tatsuki took in a deep breath and marched towards the car, "Ok, come out right now!" she practically yelled, "or should I make you come out?" when there was no answer, perhaps it was an indication that she should stop being so stupid and just try to get away. She made her way around the car only to find an all too familiar orange haired boy crouched behind the car, looking at her somewhat sheepishly.

"Ichigo?" she asked incredulously, the orange-haired shinigami rose to his feet and folded his arms across his chest, "what the hell are you doing following me like that?".

"Well Orihime pointed out that you weren't acting like yourself today – and it's true, you seemed absent – and I wanted to find out why." Any trace of guilt he may have felt in the beginning seemed to disappear; his stubborn tone made it clear that he felt his actions were completely justified – his initial sheepish look had given up its place for his trademark scowl.

"So you decide to stalk me?" she suddenly felt stupid for getting so worked up over nothing. "You could have just asked!"

He leaned forward slightly, "I did, remember? And you said 'nothing'."

"So take it like that." She snapped as she shoved him away. She turned and began to walk away but stopped when she noticed he was still following her but this time he was being much bolder and open about it; he was not even trying to hide. She spun round so sharply that Ichigo was forced to take a step backwards, "Ichigo, I'm warning you." She said tersely.

"I'm trying to look out for you!"

"Don't." she snapped almost angrily; he was wearing away at her patience, "you never have and never will so do not pretend like you want to start now!" she turned away and stormed off, fuming all the way back to her home, leaving a bewildered Ichigo standing alone in the middle of the pavement.

She pushed open her room door with a small sigh of defeat. She was being really silly and now she felt guilty for taking out her frustrations on Ichigo – truth be told he did look out for her, perhaps not in the most conventional of ways but bottom line was he was there for her… sometimes. She dropped her bag on the ground; lately she had been letting everything get to her and it was ridiculous; for one there was no was anyone would bother threatening her life – well unless they were those soul eating monster.

She stifled a yawn as she began to take off her school clothes. She lazily undid the red tie, pulled it off her neck and threw it on the bed. She was in the middle of unbuttoning her shirt when she felt a slight pressure on the edge of her senses; she knew she had told herself that the notion that someone was after her was utterly ridiculous and so she was not going to bother anymore but her curiosity and possibly paranoia got the better of her.

Tatsuki turned her head slowly and looked over her shoulder, "What the hell?" she spluttered as she hastily pulled her shirt close. Stand behind her was an all too familiar dark haired man staring intently at her,

"Tatsuki Arisawa." He said in that cool detached tone he had used on her before,

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" she screamed as she quickly tried to button her shirt. She took a reflexive step back when the man unsheathed the katana that was strapped to his waist,

"Senbonzakura," Tatsuki noted, "so you must be Renji's boss."

"That is currently inconsequential." Byakuya said as he walked towards the dark haired girl who was currently trying to hide the fear that leapt from her eyes and shaking hands. "You will call this katana; you will take the katana and say 'scatter senbonzakura'."

"No." she said firmly. He was almost surprised by her refusal; perhaps it was the vim and certainty with which said refused that surprised him most – but moving on to more pressing matters, there had to be an easier way to do this. He knew he could not threaten her… but it was not as if that was _completely_ out of the question; there were no seretei laws against it. Byakuya took in a deep, calming breath as he tried to hold on to his sanity before it slipped and his zanpakutou 'slipped' as well.

"You no not understand the urgency of this matter. I am one of the thirteen most important pillars standing between your insignificant world and existence and utter destruction at the hands on a mad man. I must be at the peak of my strength and I cannot do so unless you cooperate, you will do as I say or you would have inevitably doomed all that you hold dear." That was not a threat, right? It did not count as one; he had merely laid out the facts for her.

"Tch," she folded her arms across her chest, all traces of fear gone, "and how is that my business." He was actually awed at her stupidity and callousness. Had she not understood a word he had just said or was she just one of those people fated to meet the gates of hell?

Tatsuki stared at the dared haired shinigami, devilish amusement danced in her eyes and this irritated Byakuya even further because he did not see the hilarity in any of this. "What did you tell me the first time we met?" she said smugly, "that I should not get involved in 'shinigami matters', from what I can tell this sounds a lot like 'shinigami matters' so I am going to take your advice and not get involved." Never in his entire life had the sixth division captain wanted to strangle anyone as badly as he wanted to strangle the tiny girl standing before him, laughing at him.

"You will do as I say." He said sternly, she had no idea how serious he was nor the lengths he was willing to go through to get her to call the zanpakutou.

"No."

"You still do not understand the gravity of the situation? Must I show you what is at stake? Do you have any idea what a shinigami captain is worth in a battle?"

"Obviously not, but I don't believe that this is the only way to solve your problem – you don't need me so leave me alone. Plus even if you do have some kind of war coming up Ichigo is on your side and I have faith in him."

Slate grey eyes focused on her so intently that she felt as though he was scrutinizing her from the inside out, searching for something behind her last words. "I am not getting involved in this." She said in a less amused and more serious tone.

"Just call the damn katana!" A voice that undoubtedly belonged to a certain red haired shinigami interrupted their 'conversation'. Byakuya turned and headed towards the window and Tatsuki, curious, followed him closely.

"Lieutenant Abarai?"

"Renji?"

He seemed to appear from nowhere and she watched, fascinated, as he stood in pretty much thin air. "Lieutenat Abarai." The cold voice jerked her out of her thoughts, "I instructed you to stay out of this matter."

"I'm simply doing what I feel is best." Renji said firmly, the look in his captain's eyes were clear enough indicators that if he could call out senbonzakura Renji would be in a thousand pieces by now.

"Your duty is to follow orders, not to do what you _feel_ is best."

"She is not going to call out senbonzakura because you ask her to; she hates you." Byakuya resisted the urge to pass a sarcastic comment, if any one deserved to be hated it was the insolent girl not him.

"And what makes you think I'm going to listen to you?" she shot at Renji threw cast her a lopsided grin,

"Because you trust me."

"Not a good enough reason." She said abruptly, her response caused the lieutenant's grin to fade. If Byakuya could hit her he would have, swiftly. "What assurance do I have that if I call that katana I won't wind up dead, in some alternate universe, under constant attack, kidnapped or something even worse?"

"That I won't let anything like that happen to you." Renji's irritation at her stubbornness was quickly rising to the surface and it was evident in his tone.

"Enough." Byakuya snapped, "Lieutenant Abarai, you will return to Seretei immediately where you will face your punishment for disobeying orders yet again."

"Yes captain." Renji said with thinly veiled anger.

"A suspen-"

"Give me the katana" Tatsuki cut in to the surprise of both captain and lieutenant. She snatched the katana from the shinigami captain and glared at Renji, "I'm only doing this because of you, if I die or get hurt or feel anything kind of discomfort as a result of this you are a dead man."

"Deal." He nodded with a small smile to which Byakuya had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. She held senbonzakura in an outstretched hand took a deep breath and said, "Scatter senbonzakura." and it listened.

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**A/N: Master Solo mentioned an idea in a review and I'm thinking of taking it up, but first I need help on figuring out what soul society was like before Kenpachi came into the picture; I'd greatly appreciate any pointers and notes, especially on who the captains were and what not. **


	9. Pink Boat, Yellow Boat

**Pink Boat, Yellow Boat**

She was quickly getting used to be in Byakuya's scoulscape. There was nothing to hate about it; it was pretty with a lot of open space, trees and fresh air, she found she could actually enjoy being there if senbonzakura did not insist on insisting she was his wielder. "Ok, so why did you bring me here this time?" She asked as she stared at the passing clouds, she had grown accustomed to having her dreams being taken away from her so now it bothered her very little,

"Why did you let them take me away again? You had me in your hands and called me out and then you made no effort to prevent them from taking your zanpakutou away from you?" Senbonzakura focused his eyes on the girl he believed to be his wielder, "what is your plan?"

"Listen," Tatsuki replied slowly, "I am not your wielder. Your wielder is some shinigami not me. I think someone made you forget that so you may not believe me but trust me; I am telling the truth."

"Lady Arisawa -"

"No," she cut in, "I am not going to discuss it anymore, ok?"

"I am your zanapaktou and you will listen to me." His voice was surprisingly stern but that had no effect on Tatsuki,

"No, _you_ will listen to me." She rose to her feet, "tell me, how long have I been your wielder?"

"Almost a hundred years." Tatsuki was stunned by Senbonzakura's reply but she managed to push aside her astonishment and continue with her questions.

"What battles have we fought together?"

"Many, even recently you used me against one of Aizen's arrancar."

She rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration, "ok, let's try a different angle. When, before this year, was I here?"

"When you achieved shikai, then you defeated me to obtain bankai, when you had problems…" Senbonzakura was getting irritated by theses questions: what was she trying to prove? Had his shinigami gone mad?

"Do you remember _me _being here? Not the event, but _me_. _Here_. Fighting you."

Finally the zanpakutou spirit was silent; he could not remember her being in her soulscape. He remembered being defeated to achieve bankai, and he knew someone had been here for so long, every fiber of his being told her she was the on who was here but he just did not have it clearly in his memory. "What is the meaning of this?" his question was not directed at her but Tatsuki responded by patting him lightly on his back,

"My sentiments exactly." She said with a tinge of humor. At least she was getting somewhere. She could not bring herself to believe that senbonzakura was actually a part of that arrogant shinigami – the personalities of the two were too different for them to be linked in any way.

Senbonzakura folded his arms across his chest, a habit he had already picked up from Tatsuki, and watched as she faded out of the soulscape, if she could see behind the mask she would not have given him that cheerful, satisfied wave as she faded out – she would have been worried.

Yes, she had just proved that there was something wrong with him as well but that was probably as a result of whatever was done to her. He knew there was something wrong with her. He narrowed his eyes darkly, there was something wrong with her and if she was not going to do anything about it, then he would. Next time he got the chance, he was going to save her no matter the cost.

Tatsuki woke up in an unusually good mood that morning, perhaps it had something to do with her finally making some progress with that zanpakutou spirit but her good mood only lasted until she got downstairs; when she got downstairs she noticed her house was for some reason lacking in people; her mother and father were not in their usual place, which was behind the table eating breakfast as slowly as humanly possible.

"Mother? Father?" her voice was heavy with worry as she searched the entire house for her parents. They could not have already gone to work, for one thing her mother rarely went to work (how that woman kept her job was still a mystery to Tatsuki), and for another, they never left before her because they seemed to think time was there to wait for them.

She had searched _everywhere_; she had even called their respective workplaces only to hear that no one had seen them. Slowly it dawned on her, they must have been kidnapped or something and it was because of her, her and her stupid involvement with shinigami. She knew something bad would happen is she got involved yet she let herself call that zanpakutou and now she was screwed. Perfect. She was going to _kill_ Renji.

She had just sunk into a chair, contemplating what to do next, when she heard the front door open. She shot to her feet, hoping it was her parents, and raced to the front door only to find an all too familiar dark haired man instead.

"Good morning, Tatsuki Arisawa." Byakuya knew they had started off badly, he also knew that for him to survive the next few weeks they were going to have to get along so he was making a conscious effort to be a 'pleasant' as possible.

"Where the hell are my parents?" she, much to his annoyance and surprise, grabbed the collar of his shirt and yanked him downwards so they were eye-level, "I know you shinigami did something and I swear id you want to live to see tomorrow bring them back. Now." Instantly all his goodwill went flying out the window – this girl really needed to learn respect and some basic manners.

"Tatsuki, first of all you are going to let go of me right now-"

"Like hell I am!" She snapped.

"Way of binding number 9," Byakuya said without hesitation, "strike." Suddenly Tatsuki found that she could not move; her eyes widened in surprise in confusion as he slowly prying her fingers off his shirt.

"Your parents are fine." Byakuya did not noticed her fingers were twitching slightly, he turned his back to her as he examined the house slowly, "Right now I am have been put in charge of protecting you because due to your unfortunate connection with my zanpaktou…" the rest of his words died on his lips when a small hand grabbed his shoulder and his him round,

"What right do you shinigami have to just walk into my life and do as you please?" He could not bring himself to process her question much less answer it; his brain was still stuck on trying to figure out how she could have broken through a binding kido so quickly. "I don't care what your problems are any longer – I want nothing to do with you guys. I'm alive, you're dead, let the dead deal with the dead and the living deal with the living – is that fine?"

He brushed her hand off his shoulder coldly, "Way of binding number 30, beak piercing triple beam." It was not conventional to use such high level kido on a living person, it had no adverse effect on them it just was never necessary. Even now, he knew it probably was not necessary but it was this or manually restraining her which he could not bring himself to do because, from his brief physical contact with her, to him she seemed almost frail – as if he would accidentally break her wrist or something equally inconvenient.

"Your parents are in good hands, they were moved for their own safety just like I was placed here for yours." This time he dared not take his eyes off her; although this binding spell was mainly for keeping her in one place ad not annoying him as he spoke, it was partly to gauge the level of her spirit energy. And if she broke out of _this_ one, he wanted to see how. "As I was saying, due to your connection with my zanpaktou, if you die senbonzakura may disappear along with you. Soul society had enemies who would like to see it loose a captain."

"Can you let me go?" she asked tersely. "I'm already late for school."

"You are not the only one inconvenienced by this." He noticed the yellow glow of the binding kido flicker. Now he was even more curious.

"Yeah, but I seem to be the only one who will not benefit from this in the end so don't start thinking that we're in the same boat." Byakuya broke the kido and her feet touched the ground lightly. She picked up her schoolbag and said coldly, "When I get back from school my parents better be here and you better be gone." After which she stormed out without as much as a backwards glance.


	10. Technical Difficulties

**_Technical Difficulties_**

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It was an overpowering, ominous feeling that made Ichigo freeze and turn slowly. He had not heard her approaching but he had most certainly felt her fury from several feet away. "Where is Renji?" Her words were slow, careful and frightening. Ichigo looked to Rukia who simply looked back at him.

"No idea." They shrugged in unison – actually they had a pretty clear idea of where the red-head would be but they felt that this was one of the few times when the sixth division lieutenant needed to be protected.

"Fine." She said after a moment of contemplative silence that managed to put Ichigo on edge, "but if I find out that you're lying, you're a dead man Ichigo."

"What do you need Renji for?" Ichigo, after gathering the courage to, finally asked the question that had been sitting on the tip of his tongue for what felt like ages.

"Oh nothing," Tatsuki waved off the question, "just to kill him."

"What did he do this time?"

"That is between him and me." Tatsuki replied a rather sharply. Ichigo was about to press on when he noticed the very topic of their discussion walking towards them, wearing the very same uniform as him. He resisted the urge to let Renji walk to his doom, and instead settled with trying to discreetly warn Renji of the danger – and most likely pain – that awaited him should he make himself known to the short, rage filled girl standing with her back towards him.

"So you're going to kill Renji when you find him?" Ichigo asked so carefully he instantly gave himself, and Renji, away.

"Wow Ichigo, you're pathetic." Tatsuki shook her head in mild disgust, "and there is not use trying to escape, I know you're there Renji." The red-head lieutenant, who was trying to sneak away, froze.

"She's right – you are pathetic." Rukia elbowed Ichigo painfully in the side.

Maybe it was from being dragged outside the class by his hair, or maybe it was her yelling, or the sudden, inexplicable fear he was feeling, either way Renji could feel the beginning of a headache pressing against his temples.

"What did you promise me before I call Senbonzakura?" Tatsuki bristled; she did not give him a chance to respond; she quickly followed her question with a response, "that nothing bad will happen. Right?"

"Not entirely."

She ignored his words and continued as though he had never spoken, "so tell my why I wake up to find my parents _gone_."

"They're being protected. Weren't you told?"

"Yes, I was told by your captain but how do I know that it is true? I want to kill you so badly right now."

"Listen to me," Renji grabbed her shoulders, he was too fond of this for Tatsuki's liking, he was generally too touchy-feely for her liking but she let it slide . "they are fine. I promise."

"What good is your promise; you throw that word around so much that it's meaningless."

"That was harsh and uncalled for; if I were anyone else I might have taken offense." His eyes were pleading for her to calm down and just listen to reason, "If I could I would personally take you to go and see them but I can't. I literally cannot; if I'm to try to sneak you into soul society we will both be executed, no joke."

"Get away from me." She pried his finger off her shoulders coldly, "I don't know who the hell you shinigami think you are, barging into people's lives and messing it up just because you can."

"I'm sorry." He let his hands fall to his sides hopelessly, "I can't exactly say you're being a bitch because I understand why you are upset, but I can't do anything about it; I'm not the superhero who comes in and makes every bad thing go away; I'm not Ichigo, and I'm sorry for that but I know you trust me so deep down you know your parents are fine."

Perhaps it was because she was scared: scared that she might never see her parents again, that she had put them in danger, that she had no idea what was going on but was stuck in the middle of it all, or was as a result of her anger at herself for being scared, or at him for not telling her everything in the beginning. It could have been his arrogance, or his insecurity - she did not know what caused her to hit him and would probably never know, but what she did know was that when she punched him every fiber of her being knew she was both wrong and justified.

Renji staggered backwards after her fist collided painfully with his face - now he was definitely going to have a headache. "I don't need you to be Ichigo, I need you to tell me the truth!" her words almost cut out the pain that exploded between his eyes and that blood that trickled down from his nose. He wiped away the blood with the back of his hand and steadied himself,

"I understand that you're angry, so I'm going to let you go off and calm down." he blinked hard in an attempt to steady his swaying vision, he still did not understand how someone so tiny could pack such a punch. "When you do, you can come and complain to me about life with Captain Kuchiki as if this never happened. Ok?"

The scathing reply on the tip of her tongue died the moment she processed his last words, "What do you mean 'life with Byakuya'?"

"Didn't he tell you?" Renji blinked hard again, "That's the main reason I came to your school, to see how you would cope."

"Cope with what?"

"He's going to be living with you because he's been assigned to protect you; if anything happens to you, for instance you die, Senbonzakura could disappear. He has to make sure that does not happen."

"You're lying." Her anger was quickly giving way to panic, she refused to believe that she would be sharing her house with someone she did not even know "it's not true. You're just saying this so I'll forget I'm angry with you."

"Are you mad? What kind of stupid joke will that be?"

"Renji, just stop talking." She snapped before her mind actually processed the sentence.

"You need to calm down." he said coolly. He really was trying to be the understanding friend but it was getting tiring. Tatsuki folded her arms across her chest and looked down. "You'll be fine. Sure he's not the greatest guy on earth – or even a great guy for that matter, but you'll survive." She kept her lips tightly sealed because she knew if she opened her mouth it would only let out the most scathing abuse she could think off, and if she did that they might end up quarreling and she would be forced to throw him out a window because right now she did not have the patience to deal with him, or anyone else for that matter.

Byakuya truly did not want to be in Urahara's shop but whom else could he go to? Urahara had been in the living world for years and with the way the shop-keeper's mind worked, he would have most certainly found out if there was anything strange about Tatsuki and he, Byakuya, did not want to be caught off guard at any moment which meant he would have to sit on his irritation in order to get as much information out of the shopkeeper as possible.

"So you're telling me she significantly weakened a level 30 kido?" Urahara asked, his interest clearly piqued, "I knew there was something odd about her, but with no reiatsu I could not conduct any experiments."

"Her reiatsu is there – and significant, it is simply undetectable." The sixth division captain hid his frown behind a façade of indifference. For what could be the first time, Urahara was proving himself to be utterly useless and unhelpful.

"Undetectable huh? Well wouldn't that be useful in the second division. Imagine what you could get up to if no one in Seretei could detect your presence."

"Out of curiosity," a black cat said, in a voice that continually managed to irritate Byakuya, as it leapt onto one of the cushions nearby, "why would you use a level 30 kido on a living person?"

He had to be honest; he had been a bit rash in his actions, "because she broke out of the level 9 kido."

"And you used a kido spell on her because?"

"She's annoying and arrogant." Byakuya clipped,

"Ah, I guess when people are too alike they will not get along." Yoruichi said as she curled up comfortably,

"I simply came to inform you of this." He rose swiftly to his feet. The visit had already been too irritating and useless for his liking and then there was the fact that he did not want to be around Yoruichi – he could not wait to leave.

"Wait." He turned his eyes to the cat who had just spoken, "bring her here, maybe Urahara and I can try to find out if she has any abilities that may be of use. Just because Aizen disappeared does not mean he is gone."

"That is her decision to make, and it may be best for you to relay your messages yourself; I am not a messenger."

"What's got you so worked up?" Yoruichi leapt in front of the shinigami captain who for a moment strongly considered kicking her out of the way but settled for simply stepping over the cat and heading his way. If he knew the tornado of fury that was waiting for him when he returned he probably would have chosen to humor Urahara and Yoruichi a bit longer.

He opened the front door of the house unsuspectingly only to be faced by a furious, determined Tatsuki. "You are _not_ staying here." Her voice was stern and clear.

"And how do you propose I ensure your safety if I do not?" he stated calmly, trying to point out her stupidity.

"I don't care." She stomped her foot in a manner that struck Byakuya as utterly childish, "I don't want you anywhere near me talk less of under the same roof!"

"My sincerest apologies," he said sarcastically as he brushed past her, "feel free to fill out a formal complaint." Tatsuki grabbed his sleeve. She wanted to hit him so badly.

"I am serious."

"This is not up for discussion so I suggest you find a way of adjusting." He pried her fingers off his sleeve – thanks to her penchant for grabbing onto him and his clothing, it had become so natural that he almost did not notice his fingers slowly uncurling hers. "I am not here to ensure your safety but the safety of my zanpaktou, just because the two happen to overlap does not mean you have a say in the matter."

"This is my house."

"Understood." He said so clearly there was no mistaking it for sarcasm. Tatsuki, whose mind was already working through ways she could make him leave, tilted her head in confusion.

"Seriously?"

Byakuya stared at her silently as he contemplated where to answer her or not, "You're really going?" she asked, her disbelief still evident.

"That is what you wished is it not? There is no use in either one of us inconveniencing the other more than is absolutely necessary. Yes, it would have been easier if I were living with you, but easier does not mean necessary." He turned his back to her in a manner that could only be described as cold, "Just as I try to lighten our burden whenever I can, I expect you would at least have the sense to extend the same courtesy to me and do as I tell you."

As she watched him leave she felt a respect for him develop amidst her dislike of him. Yes, she still was not fond of him and would have liked to see him out of her life forever, but she respected him. It was then she realized two things: one, what Renji had described as bastardly cold-heartedness was most likely a stoic dignity, and two: respect did not always mean trust. "Where are my parents?" she asked. Byakuya looked at her with thinly veiled irritation, he really wanted to tell her they were 'where dead people go'

"They are in Seretei."

"What's that?"

"None of your business."

* * *

**A/N: Well, that was pleasant. **


	11. Symptoms Of A Spiritual Kind

_**Symptoms of a Spiritual Kind**_

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**_

She could feel Byakuya's spirit energy pressing uncomfortably against her personal space. For the past three days she had had a 'shadow' known as Byakuya Kuchiki, perhaps she did not see him much of the time, but she still felt his spirit energy and it was driving her insane. Being around Ichigo and Renji had given her some amount of tolerance to the uncomfortable feeling of spirit pressing against her senses, but this was too much. Never had she had to bear it 24/7 and never had it been this intrusive - well except the spirit energy of hollows, but that kind was downright annoying.

She rubbed her temples slowly; she could feel the beginnings of a very unpleasant headache setting in and she did not like it one bit. Tatsuki looked up at the teacher and forced herself to concentrate, maybe if she focused on something else her headache would disappear. "Arisawa," the teacher's voice caused her to furrow her brows in concentration as she tried to focus on his words and not her headache, "can you come up to the board and solve number five?" She let out a deep breath and rose to her feet, rubbing the back of her neck slowly as she walked towards the board. She could hear the teacher saying something but could not make out what it was, because all her energy was focused on understanding the question that was wobbling on the board.

She picked up the marker slowly and un-capped it. Lucky for her, the question was rather simple so it required very little though on her part. She took in a deep breath and began to write.

If she had her way she would have smashed the lunch bell; the shrill sound practically tore her throbbing head in half. At the sound of the bell she dropped the marker and returned to her seat where she placed her head on the table on shut her eyes. There was no way she was going to walk all the way to the lunch room; she had to save her energy for getting through the school day. Once class ended she was heading straight home and going to sleep till the next day - with the way her head was throbbing, it seemed more like she would sleep till the next year.

"Are you alright?" an all too familiar and currently unwelcome voice asked. She gave him a 'thumbs up' without looking up at him. "I think you're lying."

She lifted her head and looked up at him, "Ichigo, it's nothing."

"So there is something wrong with you, why don't you go to the nurse or something?" he asked,

"Because it's nothing." She said almost shortly,

"No it isn't." he was slowly beginning to irritate her with his inability to let things go. It really was not serious – she hoped.

"Ichigo, you're not responsible for my health ok? I am, so if I say it's nothing then it's nothing."

"Suit yourself." He shrugged before walking away. Tatsuki sighed and placed her head back on the table.

Ichigo stopped by the classroom door and stared questioningly at the red-head who was blocking the way by leaning against the doorframe. "Fucking clueless idiot." Renji said as he shoved Ichigo's lunch box into his hands and pointed back at Tatsuki, "The least you can do is keep her company… unless you want _me_ to."

Ichigo's left eye twitched in annoyance, "why don't you go ahead? Ok?"

"I'm just trying to help you."

"I don't need it." Ichigo said coldly as he glared Renji, "I've known her longer, if I want her attention I can get it – without your 'help'." Renji shrugged a casual, accepting shrug and let him pass.

"Oi, miss, do you think this is a sick bay or something!" Renji yelled as he approached Tatsuki; he couldn't leave her there by herself.

"Renji, it you shout one more time I swear I'll kill you." She said slowly and menacingly. He pulled an extra chair to her desk and sat next to her. "What do you want?" He ignored her question and placed the back of his hand to her forehead,

"You really are sick aren't you?"

"I said it's nothing." She said through clenched teeth.

"Well Ichigo didn't think so; he asked me to stay here with you and make sure you didn't die or something. I think Keigo got into some kind of trouble again so he couldn't stay." Tatsuki nodded slowly as though she were willing herself to believe him. "He's worried about you."

"I know." She lied.

By the end of the day she could barely see straight, but she still forced herself to walk home. Ichigo offered to walk her home but she refused; the last thing she needed was the strain of their friendship glaring at her while she was trying to focus on walking, so she set off on her own because Renji was too nice to. Sometimes she wished he cared a little less about Ichigo's feelings.

She had to force her legs to move, because they felt as though they were made out of rubber. She stopped and held her head in her hands; her head was throbbing and her vision was swimming, the people on the streets began to wobble and tumble. One moment they were miles away and the next they were right in front of her. She almost fell over when she, for a brief moment, spotted Byakuya standing across the street – or at least thought she did, because now he was no longer there but she could still feel his spirit energy slamming against her as though it were trying to kill her. She held her head in her hands and shut her eyes tightly as she forced herself to take deep breaths that were supposed to be soothing but failed to help.

She opened her eyes only to find the ground rushing towards her, or her towards it – she could not really tell which was happening. She expected to hit the ground, she expected the pain, but it never came. His face came into view; he was looking at her with those eyes that were so blank, so expressionless that they were almost hostile.

Byakuya looked down at the dark haired girl forcing herself to stay awake. She just _had_ be fall ill didn't she? She had to fall ill and make his job even harder. "Close your eyes." He said, "You can sleep; I'll take you to a hospital."

"No, no. I'm fine." She said as she pushed him away and tried to stand up, in an attempt to prove that she was fine – the last thing she wanted was him touching her; somehow, it made her feel even worse – but the moment his support left her she found the ground rushing towards her again. Luckilly, he was there to catch her again.

"I'm going to take you to a hospital." He said in a tone that made it clear that it was not up for discussion. He picked her up gently and marveled at how tiny she was; for some reason she had always seemed bigger.

She curled up in pain and whimpered as she clutched the fabric of his shirt tightly; her head was exploding with pain. The irritation in his eyes quickly faded the moment he noticed the tears that rolled down her face. She was suffering. A hospital, he needed a hospital.


	12. Defective

_**Defective**_

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Jinta frowned when he heard the shop door slide open. He really hated it when people came to the shop where he was working; it meant he had to stop and call Ururu because that girl never seemed to hear when people entered the shop and there was no way he was going to walk all the way to the front of the shop just to attend to some customer. He leaned his broom against the wall and yelled, "Ururu! There's someone in the shop!"

"I know." A soft voice said from his right,

Jinta folded his arms across his chest importantly, "Really? Then if you know why aren't you going to see who it is?"

Ururu dropped her broom and headed into the shop. She was not one for confrontation so she would comply and she would not tell Jinta the reason she waited for him to tell her to attend to the customer was because he looked so silly when acted as though he were her boss.

The moment she stepped into the shop from the back door Urahara stepped inside from behind her. Sometimes that man scared her; he could be so silent it was almost creepy. "Ah, captain Kuchiki, I thought I sensed you around here." The shop-keeper grinned, "It's so nice that you take the time to visit me captain Kuchiki; I really enjoy our little chats."

"Where is the nearest hospital?" the shinigami captain asked, ignoring the pointless chatter. Urahara lifted his hat a fraction of a degree and looked at the sleeping dark haired girl in Byakuya's arms,

"What did you do to her?"

"Nothing." The irritation that laced Byakuya's voice was so thick it was almost tangible.

"Then what happened?"

"She's sick, can you not tell?"

"Nope; she looks like she's simply sleeping, which leads to the question: why are you carrying a sleeping girl around Karakura? It's a bit suspicious."

"Shut him up." A gravelly voice rose between the two shinigami, "Please, or I'm going to kill him." Urahara closed his fan and peered down at the girl he had assumed was asleep,

"Ah, nice to finally meet you Ms. Arisawa – how are we feeling today?" he did not hear her response too clearly but it sounded like something along the lines of 'murderous'.

"I don't have time for this Urahara." Byakuya clipped.

"Fine," the shop-keeper opened his fan and closed it, a habit that was grating furiously on Byakuya's nerves. "The Kurosaki clinic is not far from here, Jinta could show you the way."

"No." the voice rose between them again but this time it was weaker than before. "There's no need."

"There's also the Ishida hospital, but seeing as she's an old friend of Ichigo's perhaps it'd be best to send her to the Kurosaki clinic."

Tatsuki could feel the captain's gaze on her. Looking up at him through half-lidded eyes, she wondered how he knew she wanted to speak. She had always thought his eyes were grey as steel and emotionless to match, but today he asked, with those steel eyes, _'Which one?'_ the question was so clear it was as though he had spoken it.

"I always go to the Ishida clinic." She lied smoothly; she was in no mood to see Ichigo especially considering the fact that, only a few hours ago, she had told him she was perfectly fine. If she went to the Kurosaki clinic she would be forcefully subjected to an interrogation she did not have the patience for.

Ururu waited for the captain to leave before looking up at the shopkeeper, "what's fighting captain Kuchiki?" she asked in a voice so low Urahara almost missed it. He tilted his head slightly to the right,

"You're right, coming to think of it, Captain Kuchiki's spirit energy was a bit on the defensive side – sometime I forget how useful you can be." He looked down at the dark haired girl who was studying her feet nervously, "what did you think of Tatsuki?"

"Who? The sick girl? She's not a threat."

Urahara tipped his heart and smirked, "Not to us."

She could almost hear the steady beating of his heart as he walked down the street. "You could take a taxi you know." Byakuya took the time to look down at her for a sick person she talked quite a bit. "You won't get tired that way." Her voice was clearer than it had been in Urahara's shop.

"And I won't get tired this way as well." He clipped. Not deterred by his obviously annoyed tone, she continued; her headache was slowly inching away.

"It'd be faster, what if I died on the way?"

"You're talking too much to be someone who is dying." He replied so matter-of-factly that is was almost funny,

"Then you obviously haven't seen many dying people."

"I've seen enough."

"Well there's a difference between some random stranger and someone you care about; if someone you cared about was dying, they'd have a lot to say, all these things they never said and never did – it's like they don't want to leave or something." Tatsuki paused and managed a smirk, "but I don't care about you so I guess you're right, I'm not dying."

"You have no idea what you're talking about, have you seen someone you love die?" The coldness that had been disappearing suddenly found its way back into his voice, "you haven't seen…" he let his voice trail off as he forcefully held back his thoughts.

"I haven't seen what? Someone I love die?" Tatsuki absent-mindedly fiddled with the fabric of his shirt, "Well you're right, but I've seen the ghosts of people I care about."

"It's not the same thing. They're not even close." He took in a deep breath, "you should stop talking, save your energy for recovering."

"So in essence I should shut-up?"

Byakuya remained silent, because he knew if he were to reply there would be no end to their conversation and he really was not in the mood for such a conversation. He had not been around her for that long, but he already he could tell that she had a penchant for finding, and prying open boxes that had been intentionally hidden and he'd be damned if he let her open his box and bring to the surface things he'd rather let drown.

"You think watching someone you love die is hard, trying watching someone you love live dead." She looked into the distance and finally stopped talking. As much as he wanted to ask her what she meant he did not because, as he said, he was not letting her anywhere near his secrets.

Byakuya's footsteps slowed as the large hospital building came into view. "You know I'm feeling much better now; there's no need for this." Tatsuki said. To be honest, she hated hospitals; everything from their smell to the clinical coldness that seeped through the walls and under her skin made her want to run as far away from them as possible.

"What if I decided to take you back and you died on the way?"

"Was that a joke?" she smiled, "People like you don't make jokes." Again, he wanted to ask her what she meant, and again he chose to stifle his question because he did not like the way things were slipping: words kept slipping out of his lips, expressions kept darting to the surface. His carefully mastered control was seeping through his fingers like water and he did not like it one bit.

* * *

Feel free to ignore what is below:

**I finished IGCSE a few months ago, but I just realized that I forgot to celebrate at the bottom of a chapter. So here goes: YESSSSS! In your face CIE, in your _FACE_! **

**(Sorry about that)**


	13. No Offense But You Make Me Sick

_**No Offense, But You Make Me Sick**_

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By the time they arrived at the hospital she was fine. It was not the kind of 'fine' that you forced upon yourself when you truly did not want to go to the hospital, but rather of 'fine' you felt when you were truly fine. Tatsuki watched with bored eyes as the silver haired doctor read her file. "Everything seems fine." He said as he closed the file,

"Because there's nothing wrong with me." The dark haired teen groaned for what had to be the tenth time. From the moment Byakuya had dropped her in the consulting room she had been trying to convince the nurses, and now this doctor, that she was perfectly fine.

"However, I am going to suggest that you remain in the hospital so you can be monitored in case the 'headache' returns." His voice was as cool and clinical as a scalpel, "A nurse will be in here shortly to take your room." Tatsuki stared at him helplessly, wondering exactly what was going on; never in her life had she heard of someone being hospitalized because of a headache.

"Do I really need to stay? It was probably just from stress and as you can see I'm fine now." She protested. The silver haired man turned and looked at her with eyes so scrutinizing and condescending that she suddenly found herself wishing she had not spoken.

"Ms. Arisawa, only one of us is a doctor. I suggest you listen to the one who is."

Tatsuki stared at the ceiling silently. Why had she been hospitalized? There was clearly absolutely nothing wrong with her but the doctor had insisted she stayed for 'further observation' – what rubbish; there hadn't even been an observation to 'further' and even if there were, they would have found nothing.

At all. End of story.

She fiddled with the bed covers as she tried to keep her mind off the light throbbing in her temples. Yes, she had told him there was nothing wrong with her, which was true, and she had said the headache was gone, which was partially false. She was better now, but she could still feel the light pain that spread through her head. Another thing she could still feel was the pressure of Byakuya's spirit energy, it did not feel as intrusive as it did before but she still did not like it.

It was already dark by the time she got fed up enough of the hospital room and decided that she was going to take a walk around whether the nurses liked it or not. After all, what did they expect to happen when they forcibly admitted a perfectly healthy person? Tatsuki Arisawa would never allow herself to be _made_ bed-ridden.

Byakuya leaned against the wall with his hands crossed over his chest. If he had a choice he would be far away from this place, and far away from her. He wanted nothing more than to sit on a hill somewhere and watch the sun set or rise – whichever pleased it. He was surprised when the door slid open and the dark haired girl, who for some reason was still in her school uniform, stepped out. "What so you think you are doing?" his words were clear and sharp.

"Oh come on Byakuya, we both know I'm fine."

He _hated_ the way she addressed him. The fact that she addressed him with so much familiarity practically drove him up the wall. It was 'Captain Kuchiki' or something equally formal; he was a captain and a clan head, so why did she speak to him as though they were equal?

"Yes," he said in a dry, sarcastic tone he had not heard himself use in years, "and the fact that you could not even walk earlier today attests to that." Tatsuki closed the door behind her and settled on the ground,

"I'm fine now, and we both know that."

"One of us believes that and one of us believes the other is an idiot."

Tatsuki's mouth hung open in disbelief, "What? How is this even possible? Renji said you barely talked and yet here you are insulting me so freely. I think prefer the 'I'm too stoic to speak' you."

Byakuya politely bit back his response. "As you wish." It was more for him than for her. He had not noticed how much he ran his mouth when he was around her; he was actually letting himself sink to the venomous sarcasm that characterized his speech when he was younger. What next, he'd be losing his temper once again?

"I'm joking, seriously."

"You _want_ me to insult you?"

"Of course not, but if you stopped talking it would be boring."

"I'm not some sort of entertainment." He said sharply, he was getting annoyed with himself. Could he not be quiet?

"Well you have to serve _some_ kind of a purpose." A small smile crept unto her lips, "or are you going to confirm my suspicions and tell me that you're only there for decoration?"

"No, I'm here to make sure you don't get killed."

"Oh, now I feel special." Despite the heavy sarcasm that laced her words she was grinning. She was enjoying this back and forth between them and to be honest and so was he which was why he decided that it had to stop.

"You should go back." He said in that even tone that told her that he was trying to keep up the wall between them just as hard as she was trying to tear it down. Tatsuki slowly rose to her feet, she made sure to keep her smile,

"Ok, let's go."

He looked at her as though she were mad. "What do you plan to do, stay out here the whole time?" she asked, "at least there's a chair in there."

"You don't need to worry about me."

"If you stay out here so will I." Her tone made it clear that there was no room for discussion. "I bet even you need to sleep."

"No." he said firmly, or at least he thought he said 'no', but if he had then why was he sitting in the chair opposite her bed and listening to her talk about everything and nothing? It was not possible that he was weaker than he thought, which could only mean that she was stronger than he thought. The first battle of wills and he had lost so cleanly it was almost laughable.

"Ok, what's the stupidest thing you have ever done?" she was sitting zazen on the bed, her large brown eyes shining with curiosity. What was the stupidest thing he had ever done? He had a sizable list, and half of the entries on it included her, but letting his control slip would have to be number one, however he had the feeling she would not want to hear that so he chose something else. She enjoyed it, so he told her something else and she laughed so hard tears came to her eyes. Then he told her something else, which she tried to match with a story of her own, and another thing, which made her laugh again, and another thing, and another thing, and another thing. He did not realize it but by the time she slipped into sleep he had told her so many things that slowly things were beginning to surface.

She did not know when she had fallen asleep, all she knew was that the sun was streaming into the hospital room through the partially opened blinds and the seat opposite the bed was empty. "Ah, nice to see that you are finally up." A strangely familiar voice said. She blinked hard as she tried to clear her mind of the remnants of sleep and yesterday night's conversations, and figure out where she had seen the man in the stripped hate before.

She was in the middle of trying to figure out who he was when Byakuya returned looking more serious than she had ever seen him, if that was even possible. "Who is he?" she asked the shinigami captain.

"Urahara Kisuke." Byakuya replied. He looked straight ahead, careful not to make eye-contact with her.

"Well I can't expect her to remember me. She was not exactly in the best of conditions when we met." The shop-keeper said as he pulled the window blinds shut. "I did manage to figure out what is wrong with her though." It was really just a theory but he was pretty certain he was right, because he had created Ururu's powers on an idea similar to how Tatsuki's spirit energy was currently behaving.

"For the last time, there is nothing wrong with me – can you leave now?" Tatsuki asked exasperatedly. The more time she spent around shinigami, the more she disliked them because they seemed to believe that they had the right to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted.

"There is something wrong with you and it's that you're – how can I put it – 'allergic' to Captain Kuchiki over here." Urahara grinned because he knew neither of them would understand and to him, their confusion was simply hilarious.

"How can I be allergic to a person? Are you mad?" Tatsuki turned to look at Byakuya but his eyes were still focused straight ahead. "Byakuya."

"Can I help you?" he asked coldly without turning to look at her. Tatsuki picked up her pillow and threw it at him, wishing that it would somehow transform into something hard and heavy to knock some sense into his arrogant head. He dodged it, of course, and although it was more than enough to get his attention, it was not enough to make him look at her. Looking at her would only make him see his weakness.

"Don't you at least have the decency to look at me when I'm talking to you? It's common manners." On a normal day that would have been more than enough to get him to look at her, and then proceed to murder her in a calm, dignified manner. However, after all he had said yesterday there was no way he was going to look his weakness in the eyes because he would not so much as rebuke her and that in itself was shame.

Tatsuki scowled, she was about to speak again when she saw something thin and red float past her. She looked down at her hands only to find they were surrounded by a thick red glow that spread into thin, violently moving wisps that all stretched in one direction – towards Byakuya. She looked up at the shinigami captain who was staring at his own hands which were surrounded by a light blue glow which barely budged as the red wisps lashed violently against it. "Urahara, what is the meaning of this?"

"I had this room sprayed with a spirit energy indicator. The downside of this is that it takes hours to work."

"So you had me hospitalized to keep me here?" Tatsuki cut in, she was still staring fascinatedly at her hands and the rest of her body which was surrounded by the same glow.

"Yes." The shopkeeper opened and closed his fan, "and it turns out I was right."

"Explain." Byakuya said as he lifted his eyes from his hands.

"Tatsuki's spirit energy works primarily as defense. It is raw energy geared wholly at defense; it has not developed into any sort of ability. Her spirit energy does not only make her more tolerant to spiritual attacks by building up around her thickly, but also directs itself at whatever it deems as a threat, in this case you. Of course a captain's spirit energy is far superior to hers, thus the effect of attacking you resulted in her headaches – you are far too powerful an adversary so it is straining her."

"Then in that case someone else should take over the duty of protecting her." Byakuya stated so simply it actually annoyed Tatsuki, who was beginning to wonder if this was the same man she had laughed with, and at, the night before.

"No need, it actually seems to be getting better. I think she should be fine, a few more days and this will not even exist. Unless you attack her again."

"I never attacked her." Byakuya said sharply and coldly, his grey eyes narrowing in irritation.

"What would you call using a binding kido on her? You brought this on yourself Captain." Urahara said with a secret smile as he left the hospital room, leaving the two of them alone with the fading spirit energy indicator.

"What's your problem Byakuya?" Tatsuki asked, "It's like you're bi-polar or something." A part of him wanted to turn, but in the end he kept his eyes away from hers. She had broken something around it, and until he built it back up he could not let her see because she would see inside and no one was supposed to see inside.

"We should leave now, there's no reason to remain here."

"Byakuya." She said in a softer tone, but he was already half way out the door.


	14. Dragon in Distress

_**Dragon in Distress**_

_**

* * *

**_

She drew silently on the condensation on the window as the car cruised down the streets. She tried to be angry with him to prove that nothing had changed but it had; yesterday she had seen what he was trying to hide and she tried with all her might not to pity him but sometimes trying just did not cut it. She hated herself for the pity she felt because she knew if she were in his position, if she were as lonely as he was, and someone found out and dared to pity her she would hate that person. She was insulting his pride but she could not help it; it was so heart-wrenching to look inside someone and see only solitude.

She watched as the car stopped in front of her house. She did not ask where he got such an expensive car, because she could not bring herself to speak to him; that episode in the hospital room told her clearer than any words could that what she had seen was something he was trying desperately to hide and if he wanted to so badly, then she would hold back her urge 'to fix' and let him, at least, have his pride.

Tatsuki wanted to tell him that it was ok if he stayed in her house, but the words refused to form which was probably a good thing, because she was unsure whether she truly meant it or whether the offer came from pity. She managed a forcefully toned-down 'good-bye' wave but he still refused to look at her.

Over the next week she did not see him. Not once. She felt his spirit energy alright, and she made it a point to look out for him, but she never caught so much as a glimpse of him – not even among the busy afternoon crowd or the empty night streets.

She pushed her dark hair away from her face as she stopped in front of her house, "Don't you have anything better to do with your time Renji?"

"You should learn to be a better girl," the redhead teased, "don't you know you're supposed to blush and say 'thank-you' when someone walks you home?".

"Yeah, and then hell would freeze over." She smirked as she hit him upside the head playfully. Normally he would not be bothered by that fact that he was just another person in her life and was of no real significance to her. If she were anyone else he would not mind too much; he had too many goals to worry about whether or not others cared for him, but he wanted her to need him like how, until a few months ago, he wanted Rukia to need him.

Tatsuki walked up the porch towards the front door, the moment her fingers brushed against the door handle she felt a strange sensation creep up her arm, but she ignored it. She pulled out the front-door key from her pocket, unlocked the door and walked through it straight into a pool of red and undulating light that locked her where she stood. "Come on. Just step through." A low, foreign voice echoed throughout the house and snapped her out of the trance the red light had placed her in.

"Oh shit." She breathed as she backed out of the door and onto the porch. Through the red light she could see a dark outline sauntering towards her like a cat. She spun round but before she could take one step a firm arm wrapped itself around her mid-section and pulled her through the light. She managed to throw out one "Renji!" before the door slammed shut and a firm hand across her face sent her rushing towards the ground.

She looked up at the dark-skinned man, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. His dark lips stretched into a knife grin that stretched from one pointed ear to the other. "Let's play a game." Seemingly out of nowhere, a bright white light knocked him off his feet and sent him flying towards the other side of the living room. Tatsuki turned to see where the light had come from and surely enough, standing a few feet to her right was her taciturn guardian angel, Byakuya.

"Shinigami." The arrancar said spitefully as he surreptitiously crushed the hollow bait he had hidden up his sleeve before rising to his feet, "I hate to cut our little reunion short but I ain't got time to waste."

Byakuya's eyes flew to the dark haired girl who stood with her back pressed firmly against the wall, as if hoping she could walk through it and escape. He could already feel the large number of hollows climbing through the gargantuan as it opened directly above her house, but he could also feel his lieutenant springing into action. The wheels in his head spun frantically as he tried to figure out how he was going to both save her and eliminate the arrancar – there was no way he was letting that _thing_ escape this time.

A large fist smashed through the side of the house, forcing the sixth division captain to shunpo to the left in order to avoid being hit. In that split second, the arrancar was at Tatsuki's side, reaching towards her, ready to grab her.

What happened next was something that would have made him smile where the situation not so serious. Byakuya strongly doubted that the arrancar expected – or even saw – what happened next because he most certainly did not. He knew the girl was crazy but not _that_ crazy. One minute the arrancar's arm was stretched towards her, ready to grab her, and the next minute his arm was twisted in a painful angle behind his back and Tatsuki's was grinning triumphantly as she twisted the arm even further. The arrancar let out a primal howl, causing the pride that shone in Tatsuki's face to instantly fade away. All her thoughts of _'yeah, he needs to know who not to mess with'_ were instantly replaced by a short, simple, _'oh shit'_.

A solid blow to the side of her head caused her eye-lids to the drop suddenly and she slipped into unconsciousness. Byakuya frowned deeply; he could feel the beginning of true rage nibbling at his insides. He rushed towards the dark skinned arrancar; how dare that thing hit her – no, make his job harder?

The arrancar, holding the unconscious girl firmly by his side, sped out the house and upwards. Byakuya was mere centimeters behind. The three of them were above the house now: one unconscious, two racing towards the closing gargantuan.

Somewhere in the distance Byakuya heard the word 'bankai' and felt his lieutenant's spirit energy spike but he paid no attention to it; all his attention was focused on the abomination trying to escape. Renji could deal with the adjuchas and menos; he was a lieutenant after all.

He focused all his energy on moving faster but the arrancar was simply too fast. Byakuya watched, the foreign, unpleasant tendrils of fear began to snake around his heart, as he watched the arrancar, and Tatsuki, disappeared into the darkness of the closing garcantuan. For all his pride in his abilities, he was too slow; the gargantuan was closing far too fast. Damn.

Suddenly, a familiar, off-white bone fragment shot past him and lodged itself between the two edges of the closing gargantuan. Byakuya slipped through just as the fragment snapped in two and the gargantuan closed. So _that_ was what lieutenants were for.

Falling through the darkness, he finally let himself relax a little – but not too much. If asked if he would ever want to change his lieutenant, Byakuya Kuchiki would without a doubt reply 'a lieutenant is a lieutenant', but truth be told it was moments like this that made him hesitate before spouting such obvious lies. Whether he would admit it or not, he needed opposition in some form, and maybe that was why he had that unsettling respect for Renji, the idiot who had, for some reason, decided to keep proving himself.

When Tatsuki opened her eyes, she and the arrancar were still falling through the darkness towards Las Noches. She looked up at her captor who had not yet noticed her consciousness.

To try and fight her way out, or not to. She almost laughed at that thought; she was defiant, not stupid. Somewhere nearby she could feel Byakuya approaching. Maybe she was just dreaming it up, maybe it was the shock from having to wait to be rescued that caused her to imagine his presence – even if he was not coming, she would chose to believe so because she had realized, a long time ago, that it was not just about her anymore, she could not afford to be headstrong or stupid in these situations because she was not the only one going to lose if she died.

The arrancar dropped the girl and frowned; she was awake now and glaring at him with unbridled fury, moreover, there was something resting behind those brown eyes, something inexplicable and unsettling. He needed to kill her as soon as possible, but the problem was, killing her was not as simple as slitting her throat or bifurcating her; no, killing her required precision and thought and a bloody long process that that idiot shinigami had so rudely interrupted, because if he just killed her as though she were just another obstacle, the shinigami would regain control of his sword.

Tatsuki forced herself to remain still when the arrancar leaned towards her. Initially, she stared at him straight in the eyes to show that she was not afraid of him, but the red marking around his eyes began to glow, faintly at first, but soon the glow built up into a pulsing red light that engulfed her. She quickly looked away – partially because of the light and partially because she could feel the beginning of a headache pressing uncomfortably against her temples. She shut her eyes tightly hoping to will the headache away. Her spirit energy – or whatever it was called – just knew how to make things worse.

He was furious, if her eyes were not open it would not work and from the look of things the shinigami was not too far away. He _needed_ to kill her. A swift kick to the ribs caused her to double over. Tatsuki had seen him move, but was too slow to defend herself. She coughed and gasped for air but that did little to help the burning in her chest. The light was brighter now and her headache was ripping her head into two, as she rose to her feet she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on recovering but the moment her eyes closed another kick caused her to fall down again. She furrowed her brows and focused: she would not cry, neither would she pass out, because she could feel Byakuya heading her way and the last thing she needed was to make him worry about something as minor as this.

He landed soundlessly behind the arrancar just as Tatsuki managed to steady herself. She was a mess. Blood matted her dark bangs to the side of her face as it trickled down her face to her chin and dripped onto the crisp white of her uniform shirt, her eyes were blood-shot and glistening with unshed tears and shut clutched her left side tightly as if even standing was unbearable.

He did not need to think or reason. Before even he himself could process his movement, his hand was on the hilt of his zanpaktou which was, by some miracle, unsheathed and he was heading – bullet speed – towards the arrancar, his blade ready to decapitate.

The arrancar felt him approaching just in time to avoid a wrath filled blade to the neck. Byakuya, dissatisfied with the gash on the arrancar's arm instead of clean decapitation, allowed his lips to curl slowly into the beginning of a snarl. Who cared if he was regressing to his pubescent self, some situations demanded it and he prided himself in being appropriate. "Heh, so you can show some fire, eh shinigami." The arrancar laughed. Byakuya did not respond; there was no use in talking.

He lunged towards the arrancar, blade itching for contact. The arrancar dodged again and Byakuya, reflexively said "Scatter Senbonzakura." before he remembered that he had lost control of his Zanpakutou. He, for a moment, considered getting Tatsuki to call out his zanpaktou but quickly rejected the idea; she was incapable of controlling it, so who knew who the blade would turn on.

Tatsuki watched with blurry vision as Byakuya pushed the arrancar farther and farther away from her. She wanted to relax but a strange, prickly sensation under her skin stopped her from doing so. It felt like pins and needles. The sensation moved in waves from the soles of her feet to the tip of her ears, it itched and, sometimes, burned but she remained standing so as not to distract him. She lowered her eyes to the ground as a sharp pain shot through her right side.

He had felt fear before, as a low-level hollow and even as an arrancar he had felt fear, but never had he truly feared a shinigami – at least not until now. It was more the absence of intent that scared him, how that shinigami managed to keep his eyes so void was almost frightening. If there was something, at least there would be a will to break or an emotion to manipulate but there was nothing and it scared him.

When Tatsuki looked up there was a red light rushing towards her. It was not like the undulating light from before; it was steady and hot and moving in her direction. Byakuya knew it was a cero and so did the arrancar, but she did not – all she knew was that it was nothing good. Her legs refused to budge, she had told them to stay put, to stop them from buckling, and now they were being a bit _too_ obedient.

She stood there; ready to take whatever was dealt to her. She told herself, as the cero approached her, that she would remain standing; even if she were to die she would die on her feet. She furrowed her brows in determination and braced herself for the impact right before she fell into darkness.

* * *

**A/N: Merry Christmas! **

**I'm sorry this took so long to put up. Anyway, Tatsuki got beat up bad - part of me wanted to give her powers, for no reason, and have her win - but that's more Ichigo's thing... **


	15. Truth Be Told, I'm Lying

_**Truth Be Told, I'm Lying**_

* * *

"She's still not awake?" Urahara asked as he walked towards the dark haired girl who looked even smaller. He turned his eyes towards the straight-faced captain, "She's fine; her spirit energy did not reject the healing kido."

"I am aware of that." Byakuya said in a somewhat distant voice.

"Kurosaki said you wouldn't let him in."

"He was being unnecessary and loud." Byakuya looked out the window, he was not looking at anything in particular; he was trying to escape his guilt. Why did he have to be so slow? If it were not for her spirit energy she would have died and it would have been his fault.

"And Renji?" Urahara asked.

"He's developing an unhealthy attachment. It is for his own good that he stay away."

"Well none of them are very pleased with you right now."

"How is their opinion any of my business? I am doing my job and _how_ I do it is not their concern." The sixth division captain snapped, his guilt was eating him from the inside out and Urahara knew it.

"She is their concern, not just a job. In case you do not realise it, she is a person and people need their friends." The shop-keeper tipped his hat and walked out, leaving Byakuya alone with his guilt. He knew when people need to be left alone and although it was in his nature to provoke, he decided that perhaps this time it was best to let things sort themselves out.

The sixth division captain stared blankly into the darkness of the night. Kurosaki blamed himself for not being there to save her, Renji blamed himself for not sensing the hollow inside her house, Orihime blamed herself for not being there to protect her, but none of them were _charged_ with watching over her.

To others it seemed that he did not care about her, but he did. In a strange, distant way, he had grown to admire her as a person. She was the kind of person he would not mind as the eleventh division captain – and yes, he had imagined what it would be like if she were to one day become a shinigami and eleventh division captain. She cared about people, a bit violent, but she never belittled her opponents and she cared about her teammates as people not just fighters, she was a bit self-righteous but she fought for what she believed in; she was on the disciplinary committee in her school, but never followed an order she did not agree with and for that he respected her. What he liked the most about her though, was that she did not fight simply for fighting's sake which was why, in his opinion, she would never make it in the eleventh division. She did not fight to prove that she could or that she was better than anyone, she fought to protect – which was why it was unfair that he could not protect her.

…..

He opened his eyes slowly and sat up, "Ah the princess is finally awake." A familiar voice, that technically should not have been present, said. Byakuya squinted slightly and sat up. He had not intended to fall asleep.

"You are awake." He said as he ran his hand through his dark hair,

"Really? I had _no_ idea." She smiled as though nothing had happened, as though she had not nearly died. "So, how did I end up here?"

"You saved yourself and then passed out, so I brought you here."

"Here being?"

"My house."

"Byakuya!" she said, making a great pantomime of mortification, "you bring girls home without their consent? Where I'm from that's called kidnapping."

"I could return you to your home," the sixth division captain replied irritably, "as long as you don't mind living in a house with a gaping hole in its side."

"Oh calm down." She laughed; she was too lively to have just woken up. "In all seriousness though, you said I 'save myself', how?" there was an undertone in her voice that he could not quite interpret, but he continued anyway.

"Urahara explained that-"

"Why are you lying to me?" she cut in, the playfulness had vanished from her eyes so quickly he had not noticed – or perhaps he had just imagined it.

"I never lie." He said seriously.

"Everybody lies." Tatsuki replied with equal seriousness, "Whatever that thing shot at me hit me and I passed out and you saved me. I don't know if you think lying to me would make me feel better and as a result cause me to recover faster, but I'm not stupid; if I could save myself I would have."

"The cero never hit you."

"Then why did I pass out?" her voice was thick with bitterness, it was then Byakuya realized that she was vulnerable. He had always seen her as possessing this infallible confidence but now she was unsure of herself and he _hated_ that.

"Do you know what a cero is?"

"Of course I do," Tatsuki replied, sarcasm lacing the bitterness in her voice, "because I've been dimension hopping with Ichigo and Orihime so I understand all of this wonderful terminology. Hollow, arrancar, cero just throw those words around because I understand."

"Good," Byakuya brushed aside her sarcasm, "so you know that if the cero did hit you, you would not have passed out but would have disintegrated. Your spirit energy built a protective barrier around you that was strong enough to repel a cero – I am just as surprised as you are, so you can wipe that distrust off your face."

Tatsuki stared him in the eyes, as though searching for traces of a lie, "You don't believe me." Byakuya stated so coolly it unnerved her, "Tell me what I stand to gain from lying to you? You think how fast you recover is any business of mine? My only concern is that you are alive, which you are."

She wanted desperately to believe him; who, in her position, would not want to be capable of defending his or herself? But she could not bring herself to believe him because there was always that small chance that it was untrue. She felt stupid for not being able to believe him, and to add insult to injury, she had been silly enough to be hurt when he said how fast she recovered did not concern him. Why had she left herself, for one moment, believe that he would care? He was supposed to guard her not make best friends with her.

Tatsuki sat up, pushed off the covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed,

"What do you think you are doing? You should not be up." Byakuya rushed towards and tried to force her back into bed but the moment his fingers brushed against her arm she moved away sharply, as though his mere touch burned her. He was shocked by her reaction but continued smoothly as though nothing had happened, "Do you know the meaning of recuperation?"

"Is standing up going to kill me?" she asked icily as she rose to her feet, "No, so how is it your business?."

The captain of the sixth division rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration, "Will there come the time when I can speak and not fear my words coming back to haunt me?"

"Everything you say, or do, can, and will, be used against you for the rest of your life." she replied her voice carrying the despondency that filled her heart; what if Byakuya was telling the truth – then what? She was not weak but she was still useless; she would still have to rely on other people to protect her and all the years of hard work she put towards getting stronger so she could protect those she cared about will still be wasted years. "I'm sorry I don't believe you." She spoke so low she was practically whispering, but Byakuya still heard her words and they were clear, and strong, enough to clear his head.

He had been so wrapped up in the insult to his pride that he had not even bothered to wonder why her first reaction, when he told her that she saved herself, was that it was untrue and why she was had so little faith in herself. "You're not weak."

"Whoever said I was weak?" her laugh was painfully forced.

"Just because your spirit energy is not offensive, does not mean you are weak. Putting together your character, courage and determination, I would say you are possibly stronger that some shinigami."

"I don't think I'm weak Byakuya."

"You're lying."

She turned her back to him and folded her arms across her chest. "I _never_ lie."

"Everybody lies." He suddenly understood why she used his own words against him; it was the most effective, and amusing, way to make a point.

"What? Now I also cannot speak without my words coming back to haunt me?"

"Yes," he replied with a slight smile, "because someone once told me that everything you say, or do, can, and will, be used against you for the rest of your life." Byakuya grabbed her gently by the shoulders and steered her towards the bed, "You should get some rest."

"Why? I've been sleeping for three days."

"Sleeping is hard work – just ask an insomniac."

"You're just lazy."

"Says the person who has been asleep for three days." Byakuya smiled as he pulled the covers over her small figure; he was happy to see that her spirits were lifting; he never wanted to see her so downcast again.

"I was in a 'coma'."

"Excuses, excuses." He placed his hand lightly on her shoulder, after a brief moment of hesitation,"I'll go down as ask that something be prepared for you; I'm sure you are hungry." Tatsuki looked away quickly, hiding the bright red that spread across her cheeks, she was almost certain that currently she looked like a tomato.


	16. Visiting Hours

**Visiting Hours**

He did not want to answer her question; he knew it was something that had been on her mind for a while, because he had been waiting for her to ask. He had seen the question burning behind her eyes even before she had been attacked by that soon to be deceased arrancar. When he walked back into her room she had looked at him with those large brown eyes as she bit her bottom lip in an attempt to stall the question. After just two minutes she could stand it no longer and asked, and to answer broke his heart.

"No. Normal humans cannot learn to fight hollows." He wanted to avert his eyes so he would not see the disappointment in hers, but, out of respect for her, forced himself to keep his eyes on her.

Tatsuki tilted her head to one side and furrowed her brows slightly, "Why?"

"Only a very small fraction of one percent of the human population can see spirit beings, and of that fraction only a negligible fraction can fight hollows. It is only because of Ichigo that so many of your friends can see spirit beings."

"But if I was able to defend myself against-"

"Yes, you do have significant spirit energy," Byakuya cut in, "but it is too wild to be controlled. The best it would ever do for you is protecting you as it sees fit."

"Oh," disappointment flashed across her features for a brief seconds, "No harm in asking, right?" she flashed him a slight smile. How could she be so strong? Byakuya did not understand how she could brush something like this off so easily; he knew how much being able to defend herself meant to her, yet after all that had happened to her she could still smile like nothing happened.

"I am going to admit this only once, so you'll do well to listen." He placed his hand on her shoulder and fixed his eyes on hers, "I admire you and that fact alone makes you remarkable special."

"Humble aren't we?" she smiled. Perhaps that's what did him in, or maybe he'd been done in from the moment she told him, to get back at him, that shinigami matters was not her business. Somehow his hand migrated to her cheek. Tatsuki froze; she had no idea what to do or what to think – one part of her truly wanted this, another part realized just how ridiculous it was. Byakuya could feel his heart pounding in his ears; he was scared, but his head had never been clearer. He leaned forward but a small hand pressed firmly against his chest stopped him, "Byakuya." Tatsuki could only whisper because the room was spinning too fast for her to grasp much. He pulled her hand down gently as he closed the distance between them. His lips had barely brushed against hers when a knock on the door caused Tatsuki to pull away. Byakuya rose to his feet sharply, almost stumbling under the weight of what he had just done.

Standing outside the door was a dark haired maid, "There are people to see Ms. Arisawa." She said politely. Byakuya turned and looked at the dark haired girl who was now lying flat on her back and staring at the ceiling.

"Do you want to see people now?" he asked, he was careful to keep his voice clear of any emotion.

"Yes please." She replied in a slightly shaky voice; she was trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. She said yes to seeing her friends because she thought they would help get her mind off the chaos that was seeping into her life, but they only brought fresh problems.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there Tatsuki."

Tatsuki sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration, "Ichigo it's fine; you can't be everywhere."

"I'm supposed to protect people!" her childhood friend snapped. He was looking out the window because he could not bear to face her in the state she was in knowing full well that he could have – should have – prevented all this. "Do you know how much-"

"You can't blame yourself for everything." She cut in, "and Orihime, please stop crying on my arm; I'm fine."

"I'm sorry Tatsuki." Orihime sat up and wiped her tear-reddened eyes, "It's just that we could have stopped this, we could have saved you."

"Am I dead?" She placed her head in her hands and sighed, "I don't understand, because you keep saying you 'could have saved me' as though I died."

"Do you remember when we were kids and you always got there before the bigger kids could even land one hit on me?" Ichigo lowered his head and stared shamefacedly at his feet, "And how you were always there before any harm came to Orihime? That's what we mean by 'we could have saved you.'"

Tatsuki looked down at her hands, why did her friends have to feel so guilty? She was not some five year old that required people to run after her constantly to make sure she did not get hurt – she was never that kind of person, not even when she was five, so why now? Her hands clenched into wounded fists, if she were stronger she would not have been this hurt and they would not have to feel this guilty. Apparently she had not gotten this feeling out of her system. She turned and wrapped her arms around Orihime who was still crying,

"It's ok Orihime, I'm fine so stop crying already."

Renji who had been leaning silently against the wall made his way towards Ichigo, "Stop it." He hissed.

"What?" Ichigo scowled,

"You're supposed to be making her feel better but all you're doing is depressing her – you're depressing me, and tell Orihime to stop crying."

"Am I supposed to act like there's nothing wrong although she almost _died_?" Ichigo hissed back, they were trying to keep their voices down but the girls could hear them clearly. Orihime looked awkwardly at Tatsuki,

"Is Renji right?" Orihime asked, but before Tatsuki could reply Renji said, with no attempt to keep his voice down,

"I'm out of here."

Ichigo turned to look at Tatsuki and she smiled, "I don't blame either of you." She said, "I don't blame anyone because there's nothing to blame anyone for." She took a moment to assess herself, only to find that she never expected either of them to be there in the first place.

Ichigo and Orihime stayed for almost an hour. "I'll be back tomorrow." Orihime said cheerily as she hugged Tatsuki and walked out. Ichigo lingered awkwardly beside her bed; he wanted to stay behind, he wanted nothing more than to slip his hand in hers and stay by her side until she was fine, but he had a meeting with Urahara.

"Don't tell me you're never coming back." Tatsuki joked, "That's been done to me already today." Ichigo looked at her and his lips turned up slightly,

"I'm not going anywhere." He pulled the chair closer to her bed. Renji was right; he could not continue to put off telling Tatsuki how he felt and the fact that she had almost died served as support for the conclusion he had arrived at. Things are not static; he did not have unlimited time because so many things could happen while he dillydallied. He slipped his hand in hers, "Your hands are so small – what are you, ten?"

"Oh shut up." She yanked her hand out of his, "You don't have to stay you know."

"I know, but we haven't hung out in a long time." He reached for her hand again but she moved away slyly. Maybe today was not the day to tell her; he could not just confess something like this while she was still recovering, but he could drop obvious hints.

Byakuya sat silently in his room, staring at one of the walls. He was trying to make sense of what happened upstairs in Tatsuki's room, and failing miserably. The facts were: one, he had thrown all caution to the wind, two, he had practically kissed her and three, even now – when he was far away from her and he knew he was thinking straight – he was _happy _about it. He knew what he was doing was technically not allowed, but he did not care. He was not forcing himself not to care; he just simply could not find any reason strong enough to stop him. His grand-father had always called him impulsive, even when he learned to control himself, now he realized that he had never really _mastered_ himself, so technically his grandfather was right because his younger self was still very much alive. However, his inability not to show the slightest glimmer of sanity and stop himself did not erase the mountain of problems that faced him. For one thing, they were in different states of existence – to put it simply, he was dead but she was alive. Of course that was not a problem for Isshin, but Isshin never had a clan to oversee, so he could afford to run off and live his fantasy.

Byakuya had his head in his hands and was contemplating whether he had lost his mind when a knock on the window pulled him out of his thoughts. He sighed and rose to his feet, secretly glad for the interruption. Outside the window was one of the last people he wanted to see at the moment – Yoruichi. "What do you want?" the normal irritation in his voice was doubled by the fact that she was yet another shinigami who got to run off and live their dream, and she was worse because she did have a responsibility to her clan.

"Nice to see you too." She said as she leapt through the window, "Is Ichigo still here? He was supposed to meet Urahara half an hour ago."

"His tardiness is not my problem." Byakuya clipped.

"I'm not asking you to account for why he is late; I simply want to know if he is still here."

"I take it he is," Byakuya said as he picked up the black cat and literally tossed her out the window, "I will tell him you are looking for him." He shut the window firmly and pulled the curtains closed. He hated that cat.

Although he reluctantly made his way towards Tatsuki's room, right beneath the surface he was anxious; a large part of him was more than happy to kick out Kurosaki so he could continue whatever it was that her friends had interrupted – and an even larger part of insisted he had lost his mind. She would never consent to him; it was simply impossible for two highly disciplined and sensible people to go so crazy in such a short time – one of them _had_ to have their senses straight, and it was obviously not him.

Byakuya looked down at his lieutenant who was sitting outside Tatsuki's room, and raised a curious brow. "Captain Kuchiki." Renji said as he quickly rose to his feet,

"Is Kurosaki still here?"

"He's inside."

Byakuya nodded. Her relationship with Ichigo amused him; to him it seemed as though she and Kurosaki used to be friends, but neither of them had come to the realization of the 'used to be' part, but her relationship with Renji, however, annoyed him.

Immediately he opened the door of her room Ichigo fell silent. "Yoruichi is looking for you." Byakuya said calmly. Ichigo pushed back the chair and rose to his feet,

"I have to go." Although he spoke quickly, he spent almost five seconds standing by her bed like a confused child.

"Ok." Tatsuki smiled. Ichigo looked behind him, wondering why the sixth division captain was still there. Now he understood why Renji kept insisting Byakuya was one of the most intimidating people in Seretei; how someone was supposed to feel normal under that icy stare was beyond him.

"I'll be back soon." Ichigo squeezed her hand gently; he hesitated for a moment, but in the end leaned forward and kissed her forehead softly. She flinched at the contact, but neither man noticed, because both were too absorbed in their thoughts – one of hope, the other of crushing realization.

"Are you tired?" Byakuya asked, he could not help but notice that she looked as though someone had lit a burner under her skin; she was glowing. Things became clear to him, of course he had lost him mind. Two seconds ago he had wanted to kill Kurosaki, now he just felt stupid.

"No, why?"

"You have one more visitor." He left the room before she could speak. Tatsuki lowered her eyes; she felt stupid for thinking he would stay for a while. She placed her pillow over her head and tried not to scream into it; what was wrong with that man? Common courtesy dictated that he could not simply leave her with all these questions floating in her head; he needed to come back and finish what he started dammit!


	17. A Belief Held Despite Evidence To The Co

**A Belief Held Despite Evidence To The Contrary**

As the door pushed open Tatsuki sat up, excited, because she thought it was Byakuya, but slumped back down when Renji walked in instead. "What, were you expecting someone else?" he asked. He could feel her disappointment from where he stood and somehow that bothered him.

"No," Tatsuki lied, "I though you left."

"No, why would I leave without talking to you if I came all this way to see how you were doing?"

Tatsuki simply shrugged because, truth be told, she had not really heard what he said; her mind had been so focused on his captain that his words failed to register. "Well I'm sorry I'm not Ichigo." Renji's words surprised her enough to drag her out of her thoughts and into the same room as him.

"What? Why would I want you to be Ichigo? In fact, I'm happy he did not come back because today he was acting a bit weird."

"I'm sure you're just exaggerating." Renji immediately jumped to his friend's defense, but in his mind he was cursing him. He knew something was wrong, he simply knew it. Deep down he knew that orange-haired idiot was only successful with women when he did not try, but Renji still chose to take the naïve, optimistic way and hope Ichigo would not mess up. He was not sure _why_ he cared, but he did anyway and had made it is personal project to make these two idiots see the truth. Maybe Byakuya was right; perhaps he had become too idle and was in desperate need of a hobby.

"Renji, I'm not exaggerating – there is something wrong with Ichigo." Tatsuki insisted

"Yes, one of his oldest friends almost died." Renji sat on the edge of her bed, "do you think _you_ would act normally if you were in his position?"

"Ok, fine. It's obvious you don't believe me." Tatsuki threw up her hands in frustration.

"Ok, how about he's secretly in love with you and trying to win your affection?" Renji said with so much frustration that he managed to pass it off as sarcasm, "do you like that explanation?"

"I'm being serious and you're being useless. What kind of person are you anyway? Don't you know that you're not supposed to upset an injured person?"

"You're just faking it." The red-haired lieutenant smirked. Tatsuki rolled her eyes in response.

She wanted to talk to someone about her problem with Byakuya, but there was absolutely no one. Some part of her was tempted to just blurt it out to Renji and let him tell her that she was being stupid of dreaming it all up, but the other part of her reminded her that he probably would not take it seriously and she did not have the strength to convince him because even she herself could not believe it.

Byakuya leaned on his desk and rested his head on his arm. Slowly, regretfully, he shook his head. How he had betrayed her; from the moment he saw her he understood that she was fighting to prove herself – he had seen the same thing in himself when he was younger, and in Renji. All she wanted was for him to see her as an equal – she wanted everyone to recognize her as an equal – and he had told himself he would not make it easy for her so that when she did earn his respect, it would be worth all the frustration he put her through. It was unforgiveable that now he wanted to own her; that pride, that ridiculous claim of self-sufficiency, that baffling strength, he wanted to own it all.

She was not the problem; he was; he could not blame her for his inappropriate desires or his lack of self-control – he had tried many, many times: in the hospital, after she got better, he had even tried today to control himself. Every day she was unconscious he had told himself, repeatedly, that he would not lose control. He had drilled into his own head the fact that she was like any other person; 'she is living for heaven's sake' had been his mantra in the days she lay asleep, but the moment he opened his eyes to find her staring at him and that gentle yet sarcastic lift of her eyebrow taunting him, his mantra dissipated and he allowed himself to slip. Byakuya sat up sharply and looked up at the ceiling, how pitiful of him to allow one simple living girl to consume him so. Was he losing his mind?

He did not do well with not getting what he wanted so he knew that if he stayed around her any longer he'd through away reason for immediate gratification. He had no choice but to leave for a while, clear his head and perhaps come back although something told him it would be best if he stayed away forever.

She stood with her back to him, facing the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the large garden. He stood in the door way motionless, examining her long lined figure and noting the hints of a delicate structure barely visible through the white robe she wore, then she turned slightly as she folded her arms across her chest. Haven't I? He thought, haven't I thought of nothing else since I met you? The words were as jarring as though he had said it to her. He had spent so long forcing those thoughts not to form in his mind that to hear him say it to himself, to have him admit… She turned to look at him and smiled, he saw the band of sunlight touching her hair, moving down across her shoulder to her arms and her delicate wrist... He followed its movements religiously as her arms unfolded and fell to her side. You don't know what I'm thinking right now? So confident, so proud you stand there daring me and mocking me with those eyes… what would you be like if I…. she turned to look at him, "How are you feeling?" He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.

"I did not hear you come in, have you been here long?"

"No."

"So what, you just came to check on me? I'm a big girl you, I can manage not getting killed between the ten minutes I'm not being watched like I'm going to break." The corner of her lips turned up slightly into a mocking smile. Hadn't he thought about nothing else?

"I'm returning to Soul Society today, someone else will be assigned to guarding you." Perhaps the indifference that settled on her feature was his punishment for enjoying the initial sadness that she displayed in her eyes. He had obtain some sick gratification from knowing that she was sad because of him, now seeing the indifference was almost too much to bear; he wanted nothing more than to knock her head back and kiss away that blasted indifference. "It is for an indefinite period of time." He was hoping to elicit a reaction so he would know that she cared enough to be sad. To have her depend on him of her own volition was all he asked for, but apparently that was too much to ask because she simply nodded and replied

"Why?"

"I have clan issues to deal with." His words were unintentionally, and unduly, cold but he did not really care; he turned around and walked out of the room leaving her alone with her ridiculous claim of pride. Did she not see that he was ready to throw all his away? All she had to do was give him a reason to.

Tatsuki watched him walk out, she was careful to keep her sadness hidden in case he turned; she did not want him to see that the fact that he was leaving bothered her; there was no reason for it to bother her. She had dreamed it all up as a result of the medication she was on; she wanted him so badly that her mind had started playing tricks on her; there was no possible way that hard, austere man would ever sink to something so thoroughly... it was all in her head. It had to be.


	18. Gravity, It Exists

_**Gravity, it exists **_

"Arisawa-dono." Tatsuki looked around; the voice seemed to come from nowhere. "You can't let them take me away again." Tatsuki furrowed her brows and pushed the covers off herself; she could hear Senbonzakura – he was complaining… again. Day and night all she heard was the zanpaktou's endless prodding and questioning: why couldn't she remember? When was she going to remember? When was she going to wield him again? There were days when she wanted to just strangle that being; he did not seem to understand that she was not there to give him endless attention. "Arisawa-dono!" a strong hand grabbed her shoulder; she reacted immediately, twisting the arm behind the armor-clad owner's back and then froze.

"Seonbonzakura?" She had seen him before but only in Byakuya's soulscape; she did not even know it was possible for him to manifest in the living world. She let go of him as quickly as she could, "what? How are you…"

The zanpaktou spirit did not respond; he simply picked her up as though she weighed nothing and, deaf to her protests and threats, leapt out the window.

"Where do you think you're going, thief?" he yelled at the shinigami captain, who had just summoned the seiki gates

Byakuya, turned around slowly, not quite believing his ears. Tatsuki quickly looked away; he had told her he was leaving because of 'clan issues' but she knew better and it shamed her that she cared so much because she liked to think of herself as the practical kind. "Senbonzakura?" Byakuya breathed in disbelief; how had his zanpaktou spirit manifested in the living world without his permission? His eyes travelled to the shaken Tatsuki but he quickly dismissed the thought; she did not have nearly enough skill or control over her spirit energy to perform such a feat.

"Arisawa-dono you can't let him take me away again; they'll separate us forever."

Byakuya lifted a questioning eyebrow and asked indifferently, "and what do you propose she do about it?"

The zanpaktou spirit looked at her expectantly, "Put me down. Now." At the harsh tone of her voice, he immediately let her go.

In an ideal world she would have been strong enough to just walk away and leave things as they were, she would have held on to the little pride she had when it came to him, and just walked away because she was – after all – the practical kind. But the world is not ideal; she walked towards him, slowly and carefully. She looked up at him – she had never been so aware of another person, it was as though his existence was the only thing concrete. "Why are you leaving? Tell the truth." Her voice was clear and open; she was not hiding behind a smirk or a joke or sarcasm because she wanted him to hear everything.

He turned, wordlessly, and proceeded towards the gate. "When will you come back?" she asked. Byakuya paused briefly but then opened the gates without so much as a backwards glance, "Promise me you'll come back."

Byakuya froze; she sounded so vulnerable that it was tearing him apart. It took all his will power and to turn; he would have given everything for her to have said that, like that, yesterday, instead of today. He had finally succeeded in convincing himself that what he was doing in the living world was nothing short of madness. He had finally convinced himself to return and now he could not change his mind. Byakuya rested his hand on the frame of the seiki gates and gripped it tightly, "You are a child Tatsuki, a child. It would serve you better to focus your attention on someone else, perhaps someone your age."

Tatsuki watched, crestfallen, as the gates closed slowly behind the shinigami. She did not know what exactly she felt for him, all she knew was that she felt enough for the rejection to hurt almost more than his leaving.

Slowly she turned and looked up at the shinigami spirit who looked down at her silently. Senbonzakura, although he was confused as to what was going on, knew when to speak and when to be silent. "Can you go, please." She asked, her voice betraying the hurt that lingered beneath her carefully even expression. Senbonzakura nodded and slowly dissipated.

Byakuya kept his face blank and his back straight as he walked through the passage between worlds. When he arrived in Seretei he was greeted by a young shinigami, on gate-keeping duty, but he walked past her as though she did not exist. He walked, with his back straight and his face empty, all the way to his home. It was taking all his energy and will-power to keep his mind void of thoughts. He had to keep his mind empty because there was only one thought that would come into his mind, and if he let it in too early he would do something remarkably stupid. The gates of his mansion opened and he was greeted by someone but he did not register who. He walked past all the maids and all the servants without really seeing any of them.

Back straight.

Head high.

Left foot.

Right foot.

Left…

He mechanically slid open the door of his room and stepped inside. Each action was performed independent of the others and the moment it was completed, it slipped out of his mind. He could not even remember walking home; were it not for common sense he might have believed he simply teleported into his room. Only when he heard the door close behind him did he allow himself sit down on the ground and lean his head against the wall. He had promised he would not break any of Seretei's laws, and at a point in his life he would have kept that promise even if it meant death – but he was no longer at that point and, perhaps he had Kurosaki to thank.

One month, he said to himself, hoping that by saying it out loud it would somehow make it easier as well as make him less worried about what could happen in the space of a month. He was giving himself one month away from the living world – away from her – to try to keep his promise and if after a whole month he still found himself still unable to forget about her he would go back because some types of madness were just not worth fighting.

Going back would be difficult, she would make sure of that much, but that was not what scared him; he was worried that whatever she felt for him, whatever had made her ask him to promise to comeback, was nothing more than one of those silly teenage girl fantasies and in one month it would be gone.

….

It hurt. It hurt like a bitch. Renji stumbled backwards and placed his hand over his chest where she had hit him. "What the hell Tatsuki? Are you trying to kill me?" he coughed.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to hit you that hard." She rushed towards Renji who was sitting on the mat and rubbing his chest,

"Fuck it burns – what the hell did you do?" He asked as he pulled off his shirt; that normal hits did not burn like this. He looked down at the angry red mark in the center of his chest and then up at her, "that is definitely your spirit energy's doing because that is not-" Renji stopped mid-sentence when two small tears roll down her cheeks. What the hell was going on; girls like here did not cry, did they? But most importantly, why the hell was she crying? "Are you crying?" he quickly rose to his feet and grabbed her shoulders, "No, don't cry. Please don't cry; it's not that bad – I'm not dead or anything" she wiped the tears away with the back of her palm and looked at him quizzically, then she smiled and even laughed a little,

"I'm not crying because of you Abarai." She brushed his hands off her shoulders and sneered, "If I cried every time I hurt you when sparring I'd die of dehydration."

"Then what's wrong? Don't tell me 'there's something in your eye' – that's just a bad lie."

"It's nothing Abarai." She turned to walk away but he grabbed her arm,

"No it's not; 'nothing' doesn't make you use your spirit energy when you hit someone and 'nothing' most certainly does not make you cry."

"Nothing makes me cry" Her denial was beginning to irritate him because the more he talked to her, the more he noticed that something was wrong with her. He was about to demand that she tell the truth but she spoke before he could, "But I will tell you what's wrong because I probably should have told someone a while ago; it might have stopped me from being stupid and getting my heart chipped."

"Your what?"

"My heart, it's chipped – or at least cracked a little. It's not broken or anything drastic; I was in love with him or anything, but it still hurts because I liked him."

"You've lost me; what are you talking about?" he had heard her, but he just did not understand how she had mysteriously gotten her heart 'chipped' – as she wanted to put it; as far as he knew she was not involved with anyone.

"I'm talking about Byakuya." She said matter-of-factly, "I fell for your captain and now I'm suffering from stupidity."

Renji stared at her. He had not heard right – right? Tatsuki did not just say… no, she was messing with him just so he would not find out what was really wrong with her.

"Yeah right." He finally spoke.

"I'm not joking." She said as she walked towards her sports bag, "I wish I were."

Renji followed her, silently. He _still_ could not believe he had heard right; _Tatsuki Arisawa_ fell for _Byakuya Kuchiki_ – how? He was cold and indifferent; he actually thought she would hate him and was surprised that she did not. "I'm sorry, I can't believe you – I know you are being serious but it just doesn't make sense."

"I know, trust me I know it does not make sense, but that's not the worst of it." She turned to face Renji. He could see sparks of anger igniting in her eyes. "Your captain is a heartless bastard, you know that right?" Renji nodded, perhaps a bit too vigorously but what could he say? Byakuya _was_ a heartless bastard. "He led me on." She continued, ignoring the fact that Renji was obviously finding it hard to believe her, "He didn't have the decency… in fact he started it; if he just acted like the ice-block he was this would not have happened. He made me fall for him, kissed me and then left."

"He what? No he didn't. Tatsuki, are you sure you didn't just dream this all up?"

"Why would I dream it up Renji?" She looked down at her hands and clenched them, "then he tells me to 'focus on someone my own age'. I'm an idiot."

Renji wrapped his arms around her. He believed her, although every rational brain cell was yelling 'lies', he believed her – not because he believed it actually happened, but because he believed that she was in love with Byakuya and as a result had dreamt it all up while she was comatose. That's why Byakuya left; it was for her own good. He felt sorry for her. "It's ok, you'll get over it – you're not in love with him."

"I know that," she snapped, "but it still hurts and I can't wish him dead although I want to."

Renji sighed and closed his eyes. She did drama like she did everything else – excellently: she had invented a relationship with her ice-hearted guardian while she was comatose, and was ignorant of the fact that her child-hood friend was in love with her – her life was like some silly shoujo manga and he got the lovely role of 'best-friend' and that was ok as long as he got a role.

* * *

**A/N: I can't explain my absence because I have no excuse so I'll just hang my head and say 'I'm Sorry'. **


	19. Time Out

**Time Out**

Tatsuki placed her chopsticks down and looked up, "Why are you staring at me like that?" she frowned. Renji did not reply; he just continued looking at her with that expression that was so soft it almost looked like pity. "Ugh, I'm fine. Stop looking at me." She snapped as she shoved his head downwards.

"I'm sorry it's just th-"

"I feel like an idiot Renji, don't make it worse." She cut in sharply, "especially when I'm trying to eat."

"I'm not trying to make it worse; I'm just worried about you. Can't I worry about my friends?"

"No." Tatsuki snapped irritably as she picked up her chopsticks again, "Go away."

"Look, I know I've been annoying you for the past week but I just want to make sure you are ok." Renji was being sincere; he truly hated seeing her so down, but she was too irritated to be bothered.

"Renji," Tatsuki said in a low, calm tone that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, "I'm going to say thing one last time: Just drop it. I am fine – ok? Next time you bring up this topic I will not bother responding; I will hit you." She pushed her barely touched lunch away and rose to her feet, "See you around." She said as turned and walked out of the lunch room with a cold, firm gait that made it clear that he was not to even think about following her.

"What just happened?" Ichigo asked Renji who merely shook his head in response, which only served to irritated Ichigo; how was Renji shaking his head that supposed to answer his question? "Are you going to go after her and apologize for whatever you did?"

"I didn't do anything so what will I be apologizing for? And if I follow her she will hit me; I will deal with this after school." Renji said as he picked at his food.

"You just want me to follow her, don't you?" Ichigo asked.

"I have been trying to push you along because you like her but you're too chicken-shit to say anything. At first I was doing it out of pure boredom and just to piss you off, now I am doing it because she needs you right now, ok."

"Why me? Aren't you two best-friends or something?"

"Yeah best-friends," Renji said dryly, "which is why I know that you should go." If he did not think that Ichigo could get her mind of Byakuya, he honestly would not be wasting his time. He always knew Ichigo was frustrating, he just never understood just how annoying stubborn that orange-haired idiot was. All this effort he was putting into this was not for Ichigo; it was for Tatsuki and she better be grateful at the end.

"Why? What's wrong with her?"

Renji did not answer but simply continued picked at his lunch. Ichigo scowled as he stood up and left the lunch-room in pursuit of his long-time friend.

He looked for her for almost ten minutes before he found her sitting under one of the trees outside. He could feel a weight settle in the pit of his stomach as he walked towards her, "Tatsuki, are you alright?" he began but quickly back pedaled; he had seen the way she snapped at Renji and so did not think that was the best way to start a conversation with her at the moment, "I mean, what happened?"

"It's nothing Ichigo, I just told Renji something I should not have and now I'm paying for my big mouth."

"What did you tell him?"

She lifted her eyes to him, that gentle lift of her eyebrows made it clear that there was no way she was going to tell another person, when she was already regretting having confided in one person. "Ok," Ichigo shrugged, "I was just worried about you."

"Don't be, otherwise you'll just be wasting your energy. You are taking this whole 'you were left to protect me' thing too seriously."

"It's not a waste of energy." He said as he sat on the ground beside her, "and I'm not here because of some newly given responsibility." Tatsuki shook her head,

"Ichigo, can you please go; I would rather be alone right now."

He held his objection back; he stood up without contest and said, "If that's what you want then fine, but when you change your mind I'll be around and not because I think it is part of the job description." She looked up at him, smiled and then looked down. Ichigo slipped his hands into his pockets and walked away, leaving her alone – just like she asked.

Byakuya leaned back in his chair and allowed himself a small smile; he had made it to the end of the second week. Finally. Although, things were not looking up for the promise he made, that was not his problem; his problem was the fact that he could not stop kicking himself for leaving her in the living world with Kurosaki – especially considering the fact that whatever the representative shinigami felt for her was more than friendship. He was not going to bother deceiving himself; he was the jealous kind; it came with his irascible nature which he had managed to temper with common sense.

However there was no remedy for jealousy, so when he saw the way Kurosaki looked at her, those nervous, self-conscious mannerisms he suddenly developed and worse still how _happy_ she looked, he was ready to throw him out a window. To cap it all off, he realized that Tatsuki's confusion differed from his; she was torn between Ichigo and himself.

Byakuya looked at the growing stack of paper work he had been shrugging off since the beginning of last week. It was not really a tall stack, but it was present and that annoyed him – perhaps it was about time his lieutenant returned to office duty for a while; Renji spent so much time away from Seretei that it was a wonder any of the division members recognized him. Byakuyasuddenly felt Mayuri's spirit energy dripping into his office and he jerked into an upright position; the twelfth division 'captain' – or worst mental case, both were quite apt – was trying to find him. Again.

Byakuya stood up and rushed to the door; he had managed to avoid Mayuri for two weeks and had no intention of running into him now. "Ah, Captain Kuchiki." The last voice he wanted to hear said as he opened the door. Of course Mayuri was right outside his door; of course that more than slightly disturbing mistake of mad science had found a way to find him. Who was he to think he could escape Mayuri forever; he was not dealing with a man, he was dealing with an abomination.

"Captain Kurotsuchi" His calm, composed manner did not betray the irritation that was creeping up his spine.

"How is the situation with your zanpaktou?" Mayuri asked, a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips, "I hope nothing unusual has happened."

Yes, Byakuya Kuchiki would be stupid enough to tell Mayuri that Tatsuki had some how caused Senbonzakura to manifest in the real world because he was an absolute idiot who wanted nothing more than for the twelfth division captain to start dreaming about opening her up like a rabbit. "No." he clipped, "Please excuse me but I have some urgent matters to attend to."

"Oh, don't let me keep you," Mayuri said respectfully, but his smile still unnerved the sixth division captain, "but if anything happens you should let me know, it is always better to deal with these things before they become real problems."

"Of course." Byakuya replied curtly.


End file.
